| Malachi has told the adventurers that she can comfortably carry the
fourteen adults plus three babies (those listed in Jarlath's and Malachi's
groups in #15462, plus Thelma, whose name was accidentally omitted from
those in Jarlath's group). She can fly for eight to ten hours a day at
a steady forty miles an hour within any undue strain. (She could actually
have flown considerably faster than that, but the wind created would be
strong enough to cause discomfort for her passengers.) That means that
the journey to lower Mexico will take them something like a week. They
would have preferred to reach their destination much sooner, but since
the Voyager was unserviceable, her survey ships could not handle the numbers
involved (even had the Voyager's captain been willing) and the Doctor's
TARDIS was not immediately available, they had no viable alternative.
Saddles and harnesses have been improvised, since people could not be
expected simply to hang on for many hours at a stretch, and sufficient
supplies have been obtained. Starting from Nantucket (an island off the
coast of what will one day become the state of Massachusetts), it has been
agreed that a suitable first overnight stop would be the island of Manhattan.
They realise that there may be some subtle differences in the lie of the
land from that shown on the map that they have copied, but even three thousand
years in the past the map should be perfectly useable.
On a sunny autumn day, everyone finds the flight exhilarating. Malachi
flies from Nantucket via Martha's Vineyard, before reaching the mainland
at what will one day be Newport, Rhode Island. Then she follows the coast
until they reach Manhattan. She flies low so that her passengers can get
the best view of the beautiful fall colours, enhanced by the fact that
the land at this date is covered by almost unbroken forest.
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 On reaching
Manhattan, Malachi searches from the air for a suitable spot for them to
camp for the night.
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