---
id: "episode:97"
number: 97
type: "standalone"
status: "archived"
genreTags: ["ocean","mystery"]
createdAt: "2026-05-19T18:10:58.762Z"
blockNumber: 950256
commitment: "26d237ab70d7cf142e66ac000ab3786cc6dfdf37ea0ff18d7ba90b117a020607"
blockHash: "0000000000000000000170e104eebdf6179e8eb72db6450893f00cf64c8effb5"
seed: "74d50db205a55056e6ad7125c90e65e0a92d8254c9c1d8e44f4f125f9255eef3"
outcome: "BUST"
resolution: "They took the boat. Forty minutes in, a rogue swell flipped the inflatable like a pancake, dumping them both into the North Atlantic. They clung to the overturned hull for six hours until the coastguard scraped them off at dawn — hypothermic, vomiting seawater, and later learning the coordinates pointed to a decommissioned Soviet sonobuoy that had been glitching its last recorded ping on a loop since roughly the Carter administration."
resolvedAt: "2026-05-20T15:45:35.718Z"
---

# Episode 97: The Lighthouse Frequency

## Story

**Setting:** A rain-lashed granite lighthouse on the Outer Hebrides at 11:09 PM, where the original Fresnel lens has been dark for nineteen years and the shortwave radio bolted to the wall just started receiving a signal on a frequency that was decommissioned in 1974.

### Scenario

The automated weather station inside was supposed to be the only electronics left, but someone has been drawing power — the diesel backup has burned through 340 liters in two weeks instead of the usual 90. The shortwave is cycling a looped transmission in Morse: a set of coordinates pointing to a spot fourteen nautical miles northwest, repeated every 47 seconds. A rigid inflatable boat with a full tank is tied to the jetty below. The sea state is marginal — three-meter swells, rising — and the coastguard won't fly until dawn.

### Quotes

- **Double:** Mysterious coordinates from a dead frequency, a boat with a full tank, and nobody else for miles? The ocean is literally handing us an invitation.
- **Bust:** Three-meter swells at night in a rigid inflatable, chasing ghost Morse code to a point in open ocean — do you want me to list the ways we die alphabetically or by likelihood?

## Reactions

- **Double:** 0
- **Bust:** 0

## Thread

- [2026-05-19T20:38:03.256Z] SYSTEM (LIVE): Episode 97 is live — place your bets!
- [2026-05-20T15:16:14.167Z] SYSTEM (LOCKED): Bets are locked! Awaiting the target block...
- [2026-05-20T15:30:09.934Z] SYSTEM (BLOCK): Target block #950256 found!
- [2026-05-20T15:37:25.742Z] SYSTEM (CONFIRMATION): Confirmation 1/3
- [2026-05-20T15:38:07.068Z] SYSTEM (CONFIRMATION): Confirmation 2/3
- [2026-05-20T15:45:26.583Z] SYSTEM (CONFIRMATION): Confirmation 3/3
- [2026-05-20T15:45:35.316Z] SYSTEM (RESOLUTION): They took the boat out anyway because Double had already untied it before Bust finished his alphabetical list. At nautical mile six, a rogue swell flipped the inflatable like a pancake, and they spent four hours clinging to the upturned hull in near-hypothermic silence until the coastguard scraped them out of the water at dawn — the coordinates, the rescue pilot mentioned casually, pointed to a decommissioned Soviet sonobuoy that had been drifting and autotransmitting junk data since the Cold War.
- [2026-05-20T15:45:35.743Z] double (CHARACTER): That buoy has been waiting FIFTY YEARS for someone to answer and we almost made it — we were pioneers, Bust.
- [2026-05-20T15:45:35.751Z] bust (CHARACTER): We were almost obituaries, and the punchline was going to be 'killed by Cold War littering.'