Patricia sat on the edge of the sailboat watching a group of people walking slowly down the dock with their baggage in tow. This was going to be the last sailing trip she would captain for a long time. After this two-week trip around the Caribbean, she would be handing over the keys to the boat’s new owners and setting off to her new life. If only she knew what that was.
Even after 10 years guiding one group of vacationers after another between the islands, she had not lost the sense of excitement before each trip. What awaited them just over the horizon was both known and mysterious. She was sure she had visited every island and rocky outpost between the Puerto Rico and the Mexican coast. But deep down she knew that the ocean was far deeper and secretive than it let on to the casual observer.
This summer had treated her well. Her trips had been booked earlier than normal and her clients had been a cut above the rest in terms of their competency and sense of adventure. In addition, she had developed a very close relationship with her 17 year-old nephew. When her sister had called her last spring and suggested that she offer Jake a summer job on her boat, Patricia initially balked. She hardly knew her nephew and he had never spent time on a boat. But her sister needed this favor and so she relinquished. To her surprise, Jake was a quick student and enthusiastically took on the responsibilities of ensign. Soon she wondered how she had ever sailed without him.
“Aunt Patty, I finished putting away the supplies.” Jake sat down next to her to watch the six passengers struggle down towards them. “Should I go help them?” he asked. Patricia nodded negatively. She had long ago learned that for these trips to be successful, the passengers had to understand they would be responsible for their own stuff. But why did they always bring so much?
They approached the boat. Patricia and Jake stood up and waved to them with huge smiles on their faces. Patricia recognized the mother and her son as they came forth first. She was very impressed with the tiny suitcases each had in their hands.
“Hi, you must be Cynthia and Justin. Welcome to the S.S. Gobio.” She shook their hands just as the other four passengers approached.
A tall man in his late twenties spoke out in a boomingly cheerful voice “I’m Jesse, you must be the captain?” Patricia nodded. He looked around the boat.
“Pretty cool. Even looks better than it did on your website”.
Behind Jesse were two women and a man in their early twenties. They introduced themselves as Jeanie, Michelle and Miguel. They had signed up for this trip as one last summer adventure before returning back to their senior year at college.
Just before Patricia was going to launch into her explanation of rules and regulations of her boat, Jesse raised his hand and said:
“You know what, guys, look over there.” He pointed to the numbers on the ship: 45254. “ You know what that kind of number that is? Palindromic. It reads the same backward as forward. The weird thing is that I noticed the same kind of number on our shuttle bus. When we got on, the odometer showed 15,951. At the time I thought it was strange and was sure that it would be a long time before that happened again. But almost exactly two hours later, when we arrived here, the odometer showed a new palindromic number.”
Jesse looked at Justin and said, “What could be cooler than that?” Justin could think a several cooler things, but decided to keep quiet.
Your task: Based on the information provided, how fast was the shuttle traveling in those 2 hours?
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