I might be totally wrong here but I thought the hatch Claie was taken to was the staff. If I am right it didn't take Claire and Kate long to find it. However it took them two days to reach the flame. On Lockes map from the Swan the Flame is between the Swan and the Staff therefore the Staff is further away.

If you look carefully on the map, you will notice the note that says "Alleged location of #4 The Flame" along with "but unlikely due to Cerberus activity". This along with the mix-up of Othersville as a hatch vs The Pearl indicates that the map maker didn't have all the facts. Rather, the map was an amalgam of facts and rumor along with what the map maker found during exploration.

Additionally, we don't know the exact terrain and how the hatches are laid out with complete accuracy. The map is more of a generalization. I doubt it is completely drawn to scale. Perhaps the Flame is located way out "to the left" on the map while the path to the Staff is much more direct and thus shorter.

However, I think that if we ever get a view of the "real" map that Sayid has, I have a feeling that the exact layout of the hatches is going to be a bit different than what the map maker envisioned.

Do we know how long it took Claire and Kate to find the Staff? I don't recall either of them saying "it took balh balh time to get here". If Sayid didn't mention that L/ K/ D/ and he were walking for two days before they found the flame, I could've just assumed that they found it the morning after finding Danielle. Maybe it took the girls just as long to find the Staff, it just wasn't mentioned.

They found Danielle the previous night, probably made camp soon after, and then Sayid found The Flame in the morning. Defiantly not 2 days.

They weren't taking the same route this time. They were following the compass bearing at 305 so perhaps that was not the shortest way to get to the Flame station?


Don't know if these needs spoiler font or not, but figured better safe than sorry!
Also, didn't Javi say that the map on the blast door was full of clues, but not to be taken literally all the time because the people who made it had to guess a lot? So there were bound to be errors in it?
100%
They found Danielle the previous night, probably made camp soon after, and then Sayid found The Flame in the morning. Defiantly not 2 days.

But Sayid or Kate says something about having been walking for 2 days right before they find the Flame. I think that's where the '2 days' is coming from.

The blast door should be seen as a diagram rather than a map. It identified places but not actual distances.