Stuck in the Garden of Eden - Marquesas, French Polynesia
08 52.831 S 140 02.821 W It was good luck and bad luck; the autopilot broke during the Pacific crossing, but it broke within sight of land on the last day. Had it failed sooner, we would have hand-steered around the clock in heavy seas - an exhausting proposition even with a crew of four. The other engine starter - the one that didn’t break in Panama - has now failed as well. Here, the good news is that we can manage with one engine. But maneuvering at slow speed is difficult, an issue in tight anchorages. We also have no redundancy to fall back on should the one engine break at an inopportune time. Replacement parts are on order. With some luck the new starter arrives this coming week. With additional luck, that fixes the engine problem and we can resume day sails around the Marquesas islands.The autopilot will take longer to arrive, likely several more weeks. Our next long passage, to the Tuamotus archipelago, will have to wait until it is fixed. But we could be stuck in a far worse