I was playing the movie in fast-forward from the beginning, and around the halfway point, I stupidly adjusted the playback speed, causing a desynch. (Note that this is NOT the author's fault -- for some reason, recordings for this game easily desynch if one adjusts the speed in mid-play.)
I'll give it another go on Monday. That was a half-hour down the drain...darn it.
We definitely need three bottles because the time needed for additional trips to Pirates' Fortress and Pinnacle Rock is simply too much. I've been thinking if the beaver bottle could possibly be faster than the ranch bottle. The world record for both races combined is around 2'45" (
20 rings;
25 rings), which is slightly more than the time needed to guard Romani Ranch from 2:30 a.m. until sunrise. However, we also consider that
(1) the beaver races are not frame-perfect and could be further optimised;
(2) the Milk Road is rather out of the way;
(3) the Powder Keg skip requires quite a few explosives;
(4) the "practice round" for guarding the ranch takes at least a half-minute (unless there's a way to skip that); and
(5) after obtaining the ranch bottle, we need to get rid of the milk, whereas the beavers provide an empty container.
