August 8th

August 8th was an important date for both Mark Meltzer and followers of There's Something in the Sea. On August 8, 1968, Mark and several of his contacts visited beaches around the world hoping to find clues about Rapture. On this date, Arcadia Merlot bottles were found washed up on the shores of ten beaches around the world for potential seekers to find.
For Mark, August 8th (1968) was when an extremely large breakthrough was made in his quest for learning the existence of Rapture. For the real world, August 8th (2009) was a day to step into Mark's shoes and find out what was really going to happen at those ten beaches.
== There's Something in the Sea: Phase Two ==
In July, during Phase Two of Something in the Sea, Mark discovered the Jewelry Box Puzzle, the Bellman's chart, and a recording by Orrin Oscar Lutwidge in the remains of the Scarlet Sovereign warehouse (AKA: The "Red Queen"), Lutwidge's old business headquarters.
The Bellman's Chart, a reference to the Lewis Carrol poem, "The Hunting of the Snark" was an almost completely blank map containing nothing but a small red triangle and lines coming out from it. After Mark drew the continents on the Bellman's Chart, the red triangle was shown to be positioned in the North Atlantic, in exactly the position of the Frozen Triangle. The ten "paths" escaping from it all pointed to specific coastal locations in the world. Coinciding with the Bellman's Chart, the inside of the Jewelry Box revealed that something would appear at all ten of these locations on the morning of 8th of August.
Mark devised a plan after deciphering the ten coordinates, and began to rally his contacts to make sure all ten locations (revealed to all be beaches) were visited. Mark sent letters to his contacts containing the locations of the beaches. Mark visited the Jones Beach location in New York, while Celeste Roget visited the beach in Paris, Ulrich Broder visited the beach in Germany, and Phil Isidore visited the beach in California.
When August 8th did come around, it was surely a memorable day for Mark and his contacts. On all ten of the beaches, buried halfway in the sand were dozens of Arcadia Merlot bottles with prominent labels from Worley Winery. Inside each of these bottles were promotional posters for Rapture. One was a "welcome" poster, possibly designed for the original chosen candidates of the city; and 2 were advertisements for Plasmids, one for Electro Bolt and one for Decoy. While Mark wasn't entirely aware of the true meanings of these posters, it gave him stunning proof of the existence of the underwater city, Rapture. Celeste suggested that the items found on the beaches were merely planted by Lutwidge, but Mark refused to believe this, holding on to the hope that any clues about Rapture would bring him closer to finding his kidnapped daughter, Cindy. Mark wrote several notes in which he tried to connect the clues about Rapture, Andrew Ryan, Lutwidge, and the Frozen Triangle.
== Mark's Letter to His Contacts ==
:Phil:
:PLEASE PASS THIS ONTO EVERYONE IN YOUR NETWORK.
:As far as I can determine, these are the coordinates - in the order of
:sunrise on August 8th. According to what I have learned, the tides may
:carry in valuable information at approx. sunrise at these times.
::AUGUST 8th
:6:41 AM... Bondi Beach (Sydney, Australia)....................... 33° 53' S... 151° 16' E
:5:43 AM... Travemünde (Baltic Beach - Lubeck, Germany)... 53° 57' N... 10° 52' E
:6:03 AM... Rimini Beach (Italy).......................................... 44° 4' N... 12° 34' E
:6:15 AM... Scheveningen Beach (The Hague, Netherlands).. 52° 7' N... 4° 17' E
:6:28 AM... Bay of Angels (Nice, France)............................ 43° 41' N... 7° 15' E
:5:37 AM... Brighton Beach (England)................................. 50° 49' N... 0° 8' W
:6:54 AM... Barceloneta Beach (Spain)............................... 41° 22' N... 2° 11' E
:5:58 AM... Jones Beach (New York, U.S.).......................... 40° 35' N... 73° 30' W
:5:55 AM... Kitsilano Beach (Vancouver, Can.)..................... 49° 16' N... 123° 9' W
:6:11 AM... Santa Monica Beach (Calif., U.S.)...................... 34° 0' N... 118° 29' W
:I will be checking Jones Beach location... but I AM TRYING TO GET ALL
:AREAS COVERED - if you have trusted contacts near the other loca-
:tions, please have them check. Please look closely at anything that
:appears out of the ordinary! And GET PHOTOS of anything you find!
:THANKS FOR YOUR HELP. Any info you discover may help me find
:my daughter.
:Sincerely,
:Mark Meltzer
== Real World Event ==
At the same time that Mark's letter to his contacts appeared on the site, real world fans were alerted of this event. After much speculation, it was revealed that August 8 would also be occurring in real life, and that the letter was an invitation to any follower of the site to attend.
In 2009, many fans from around the world visited the beaches on the morning of August 8th. Those who woke early and hiked to any of the ten aforementioned beaches were graced by the same thing that Mark saw: A host of Arcadia Merlot bottles, half buried in the sand, containing three promotional posters from Rapture.
== Gallery ==
Poster_1.jpg|"Welcome to Rapture" poster
WtR poster, back.png|Back of "Welcome to Rapture" poster
Electro-bolt poster.png|Electro-Bolt poster
Decoy poster.png|Decoy poster
High q.jpg|An Arcadia Merlot bottle
Worley winery label.jpg|Label on the Arcadia Merlot
Jones beach.jpg|The Jones Beach location
Aug 8 posters.jpg|Posters in the sand
== References ==
*Various links to pictures and videos from the beaches may be seen on the first page of the August 8th thread on the 2k forums: August 8th Thread
Category:There's Something in the Sea
Category:Events
Category:Pages with written transcripts