("King James" was the pirate ship of Capt. Howell Davis)
Jose
Gaspar’s “King James” Cache
by Jose Gaspar
cacher's
web site
N 27° 51.587 W 082° 37.587 (WGS-84)
convert
to NAD27 or UTM
State: Florida [state
map]
Hidden on: 8/3/2001
Use Waypoint: GC144E (what's
this?)
| (ratings out of 5 stars) | |||
| Difficulty: |   |
Terrain: |  |
This is cache is a wildlife preserve in a most unexpected place.
To get here, you’ll have to visit 11 clue sites, but it is worth the trouble to find little hidden gem of a preserve. The reserve will be found at:
Lat – N27° _ _._ _ _ Long – W82° _ _._ _ _
Your job is to fill in the blanks.
You will first need to visit Weedon Island. If you’ve been to Faithwalker and DaMama’s There and Back Again (GCEBF) cache, then you’re familiar with Weedon Island. W.I. is a big place and Faithwalker took you to the Bay Trail. We’ll take you on the equally large Tower Trail, which you probably haven’t seen. We didn’t place a cache here, but you’ll need to find 11 clue sites in or near the park that will give you most of the coordinates to the real cache.
The first clue is on San Martin Blvd. heading toward the entrance to Weedon Island. On April 25, 2000 a Bayflite helicopter, returning from delivering a patient to a hospital, struck a radio antenna guy wire and crashed into the tower. The helicopter broke in two and crashed into the mangroves on Weedon Island. The occupants, a pilot, a paramedic and a nurse were all killed instantly. The coordinates at the top of the page will bring to a small monument that was placed in their memory. Visit the monument and pay your respects. While you are there, notice that an image of the helicopter is on the monument. On the fuselage is the aircraft number. Discard the “NS” and record the remaining number here:_______________. It is your first clue.
Continue toward the park entrance. On the left hand side of the road, look for the grave of a Confederate soldier, Lorenzo Ross. Record the year that Mr. Ross died here: __________
Next, as you are entering the park, record the number on the guard shack here:_______
Now that you are in the park, head for the Paul Getting Memorial Trail. This trail splits into two major trails – The Bay Trail and the Tower Trail. Take the tower trail to the observation tower. It can be found at: N27° 50.560’ W82° 36.576’ Climb to the top of the tower and face the heading of 225°. Look across the water until you see a large brown building. Record the number of skylights it has here:_____
Add up all of the numbers that you have acquired so far. Subtract 40053. Now divide the remainder by 1000 (c’mon it’s not that tough - just move the decimal point over three points to the left…). What is left is the missing number from the latitude of the final cache.
For example, the latitude of the final cache is Lat – N27° _ _._ _ _. If the number you came up with was 23.456 then the answer would be N27° 23.456’. Got it? Good, now let’s get the clues for the longitude…
Continue on the walkway until you get to: N27° 50.725’ W82° 36.558’ You’ll see a depressed portion of the handrail with a metal plate on it. On the metal plate is a number. Record it here:_________
Continue walking until you reach: N27° 50.795’ W82° 36.585’ There is a sign at the foot of the walkway. Count all of the letters in the sign (but don’t count the spaces) and record it here: _________ (The sign has 5 words – to help you make sure you’re on the right track).
Continue until you reach the ruins at: N27° 50.816’ W82° 36.532’ How many rooms did the house have? Record your answer here:___________
Nearby at: N27° 50.848’ W82° 36.526’ How many cement steps lead up into the ruins? Record your answer here:______
You are done at Weedon Island. Get back into your car and head back toward Gandy Blvd.
While you are still on San Martin Blvd and within a quarter mile of the intersection of Gandy, look to a house on the left-hand side of the road. You’ll see the name of a famous ship (and wonder why it is in someone’s front yard). Record the number of letters in the ship’s name (without the spaces) here:___________.
Make a left onto Gandy, heading west. Get in the right lane and cross 4th Street. Bear right onto Roosevelt. You are heading toward your final clue site at: N27° 52.504’ W82° 39.312’ This is the entrance to a airfield for radio-controlled aircraft. If you are lucky, the gate will be open and you may be able to persuade one of the people there to let you fly their plane. Your last clue is at the gate leading up the hill to the airfield. There are two signs on the gate. One says “Sparks” and the other has only the letter "T" and two numbers. Record the numbers here:__________
It is time to add up the numbers you gathered from the last six clues. Add 39,716 to the total and then divide the sum by 1,000. That is the last five digits of the final cache’s longitude - W82° _ _._ _ _. Plug the numbers in.
If you have found all of the clues and done all of your math correctly, you now have the coordinates to the final cache. Go to it now. It is up to you to find it. (It is not where you would expect a wildlife preserve to be.) Trust your GPS.
Take your time. Enjoy the preserve.
Additional hints can be decrypted below.
Univat gebhoyr oryvrivat jurer gur cerfreir vf? Urer vf n pyhr - Jung jnf gur
Uhapuonpx bs Abger Qnzr’f cebsrffvba? Bapr va gur cerfreir, gur pnpur vf va
n ynetr Ghccrejner-yvxr pbagnvare ng gur onfr bs n pyhzc bs fznyy gerrf ng gur
rnfg raq bs n FZNYY, uvqqra pyrnevat gung unf bayl bar ragenapr/rkvg.
Decryption Key:
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
(letter above equals below,
and vice versa)
Logged visits (also see geocacher's
logbook entries from the cache box!)
|
Geocacher's Logs for the "King James" Cache
Home | Caches | News | Geocaching | Jose Gaspar
September
2 by brewmeister_us 
August
19 by Jose Gaspar