Zephyra set anchor in Traitor Bay, (S 09 48 228, W 139 01 876) Hiva Oa in the Marqueses on May 23 at 11:45am. After 22 days at sea the first scent of land is of Hibiscus as we sail around the south coast of Hiva Oa to the anchorage. The trip took 22 days, 5 hours and 15 minutes from San Cristobal in the Galapagos. We traveled a total of 3186 miles to reach our destination. Of the 533 hours spent, we motored only 56 hours and sailed in varying winds, with different sail combinations for the rest. During our last 36 hours out, the supposed SE trades blew from the NW. During the voyage we never had winds over 22 knots and had mostly clear weather except for a few squalls. The air temperature stayed in the 80's even at night.
It was a pleasant, mostly relaxed passage. The crossing from North or Central America to the Marquesas is the longest passage you can make without passing any land. Boats do make longer voyages by choice, but there is no opportunity to pull in to somewhere on the trip to the Marquases even if you want or need to. In 22 days, we saw only 3 freighters and 4 sailboats and surprisingly little sea life. We did have daily radio contact with other cruisers through the SSB nets. As far as seeing other vessels, it is a big ocean out there. Things we didn't do for 22 days were; see other people, use the internet, put on shoes or other footwear or spend any money. We had plenty of time to read and think and talk.