NORTH TO ALASKA

After a maiden voyage from Newport Beach, California to Seattle, Washington, Ed and Patty Dunn set off in their newly acquired Maritimo 52 on the adventure of a lifetime-a 3000 nautical mile trip to the beautiful cruising grounds to Alaska.

Patty Dunn takes up the story…

Captain Bruce Champion and Owner/Captain Ed Dunn

Up the Coast from Newport Beach, CA to Seattle, WA – 1250 Nautical Miles

We cruised out of Newport Beach, California on third of December 2007, with a crew of 3 that included the Skipper, Ed Dunn, Captain Bruce Champion, Ret., and Whittaker Dunn, grandson of the Skipper. A beautiful day was enough impetus to continue into the evening and night. A storm caught us about 12:30 AM and necessitated a stop in Monterey Bay, south of San Francisco for the remainder of the day and another night. Early on day 3, we left and traveled to Bodega Bay. The following day after an early start with flat calm seas, a whale that was being chased by an Orca and unfortunately hit us, and the boat  suffered damage to the rudder, the shaft, and the props so we were forced to drop our speed to 14 knots instead of the 19k or so that we were making. We stopped in Fort Bragg for the night. The Maritimo is built so stout that even with the damage done we were able to continue our open-ocean voyage without stopping for repairs, and time was of the essence because of weather.

It took another 8 days to complete the trip to Seattle, but except for the weather related layovers we had no further difficulties. Our secret to success in ocean travel on the West Coast of North America was watching swell height versus distance in seconds between swells and never attempting waves over swells of more than 5 or 6 feet. It didn’t hurt that the Maritimo is a fabulous open ocean boat: 76.5 hours at sea, 1250 nautical miles, 2,400 gallons of fuel.

The Sea of Cortez, or the Gulf of California as it is now called, is one of the best cruising and fishing destinations we have ever experienced. In April of 2009, during Spring break, the Verheyen family ventured down to bask in the sun and experience some of God’s most stunning creations.

The two-hour flight from Los Angeles to La Paz was almost too short to make the work to play transition. The word is almost! We hailed a taxi for the quick trip from the airport to the marina, with a short provisioning stop at the local super market. Our new boat (52-69), “Pura Vida” (translated; Pure Life) awaits us at the beautiful Costa Baja Marina, a sprawling development with a state-of-the-art marina. We quickly unpacked and joined some friends down at the beachside restaurant. After al fresco dinning at the Marina Azul, we walked back to the boat along the beach and called it a day.

Patty and Ed Dunn recently became proud owners of a new Maritimo 52. Here are a few photos of them and their new “baby” Melrose at Avalon Harbor, Catalina, CA. Bill, Michelle, and Chris from Compass Point Yachts were there to help celebrate.