Eve and Delton Conly both loved adventure. They were married last year and sailed out of Oakland, Calif. for a cruise to Hawaii and on around the world in a converted lifeboat. That trip ended just outside of Golden Gate when Eve, who was pregnant, became ill. Ashore, they moped around until their round-eyed daughter, Patsy, was six months old. Last summer the Conlys began making new plans.
They had met another sea-struck couple, Chester and Fern Thompson of San Pedro. Thompson had done some deep-sea diving. Why didn't they all sail to the Marquesas Islands, 3,000 miles southwest in the...