Pacific Crossing Question

Malcolm Leth of the Jeanneau 39 Dancia from Brisbane, Australia, is getting ready to join the Pacific Puddle Jump currently underway from the West Coast. He wrote in to ask, "Do you have longitude degrees that most sailors prefer to transit across the equator to the south in the PPJ? I will leave in the next few days from La Paz."  

We have one report from Puddle Jumpers Glenn Howell and Bona Hebert aboard their Atlantic 55 Rocketeer, who’ve already arrived in the Marquesas: "We made it in 17 days from PV with white sails. We went west toward Hawaii to about 128°W and turned left to the Marquesas.  

"The gendarmes required a bond even though we have long-stay visas. We were told that this practice started a few weeks before we arrived, perhaps at the beginning of April. We had to go to the bank and post a $3,700 bond for two people."

Cruisers leave the West Coast of the Americas from many different departure points and on many different dates but all converge, at some point, in the Marquesas. If you’re also already there where did you ‘turn left’, and were you required to post a bond?