The passage from the Galapagos to the Marquesas was one of the highlights of my circumnavigation: about 3,000 nautical miles across the eastern Pacific, sailed alone in 19 days.

Leaving the Galapagos alone

I left San Cristóbal in April 2014. After having crew aboard for the previous passages, I was happy to have the boat back to myself. There was no watch roster to organise and no need to fit the day’s work around anyone else. I could prepare meals, sleep, stand watch and deal with jobs when I judged they needed doing.

The night before an ocean departure was never restful. I went over the familiar lists in my mind: what had been completed, what should have been done but was not essential, and what I would simply have to live without until the next landfall.

First night at sea

After leaving San Cristóbal around noon, I sailed through the island chain. That first night brought an extraordinary beginning to the passage. A full moon illuminated the sea and then, as it climbed higher, the moon moved into eclipse and the ocean became dark. I lay in the cockpit watching the shadow move across it before the moon gradually returned. Was this in the steps of Cooks voyage?

By sunrise on the second day the Galapagos were astern and the scale of the passage was clear: nearly 3,000 nautical miles of Pacific between me and the Marquesas.

Nineteen days across the Pacific

Years later I described this 19-day passage as every single-handed sailor’s dream cruise. The winds were generally between 12 and 18 knots, warm and moderate, and remained behind the beam. Malua could do what she had been designed and equipped to do: settle into an ocean passage and keep moving west.

Single-handed sailing did not mean steering continuously. The steering systems, sail plan, electrical supply and the way Malua had been arranged for one-person operation were what made a passage of this length practical. My job was to manage the boat, weather, sails, navigation, food, sleep and the inevitable small jobs while allowing Malua to sail herself whenever possible.

A very fast passage

The old Malua website later summed it up simply: I crossed the Pacific alone on a very fast passage — a great sail. That is how this leg belongs in the story of Malua. It was not an ordeal survived between two destinations. It was one of the passages for which the boat had been built.

After 19 days alone at sea, the Marquesas ended the longest single-handed leg of this Pacific crossing and opened another remarkable part of the voyage: French Polynesia.