Bound for the Marquesas

If all goes according to plan in a few hours we should be under way for French Polynesia. This will be our longest passage to date approximately 3,000 nautical miles. We estimate we should be at sea around three weeks. This may be more or less depending on wind, weather and other conditions.

During this time we will have pretty poor contact with land. If the Galpagos was tough on internet access it drops almost to zero off shore. I will still continue to post blog updates as I can, but will be unable to update the Facebook page or post pictures in any significant quantity.

Please share any of the blog posts and links on Facebook and other places if you think of it. Don’t be shy about posting them right on the Sail Evenstar Facebook page for other followers there, as some will miss the blog posts.

My apologies for not finishing the Galpagos posts before leaving but we’ve not had good internet at Isabela, which is also the coolest island we’ve stayed at. Pictures of the penguins, volcanoes, snorkeling at the lava tunnels, more boobies and sea lions, etc. etc. will all have to wait until we arrive in the Marquesas.

For those unfamiliar with French Polynesia I encourage you to have a look at a web site or map for details. The world gets very big out there for a sailboat. French Polynesia is a scattering of hundreds of islands in five major groups that cover an area about the size of Western Europe. The Marquesas are the Eastern most group, closest to the Galpagos and the coast of South America, to they are where sailors stop first. The Tuamotu archipelago is some 500 miles past the Marquesas, and runs a span of 1,000 miles from end to end full of remote coral atolls and few people and settlements. Two hundred miles past the Tuamotus are the Society Islands, with well known names like Tahiti and Bora Bora a more populous and well known part of the archipelago. To the South of these three groups like the smaller and less populous Austral and Gambier archipelagos, we will not have time to visit these remote island clusters during this visit. New Zealand lies some 1,800 miles west of the Society Islands.

We have six months to explore this massive and spread out bit of paradise before our extended visas expire and me must leave and seek shelter from the cyclone season. The passage is a daunting one due to its size but it is supposed to be one with mostly pleasant conditions. More challenging I expect will be to try and see enough of this wonder land in the few months we are permitted to be there. One could spend years exploring this part of the world and not see it all!

We are deeply saddened to be leaving the Galpagos, but adventure beckons further. This is one of the truly special places in the world and we will miss it tremendously. Of the places we’ve been so far we’re all agreed that this one is right at the top of the list and we rue that we couldn’t get here earlier and stay longer as we planned, but c’est la vie.

French Polynesia we’ve heard is pretty nice too.