How’s this for a shakedown cruise? After Jeff and Robin Lyall, experienced cruisers from Orange County, California, took delivery of their new Maritimo M59 in Queensland, Australia, they spent 14 days and 1,400 nm cruising up the Gold Coast to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef for what he called “a once in a lifetime adventure.”
The backstory to the Lyall’s adventure starts three years ago, when he sold his business and retired and realized he now had time for some serious cruising. He had always been an active boater; he was an accredited diver when he was 14, and his father had a 45-foot trawler.
Lyall bought a 50-foot Michaelson sportfishing boat with his father, and took many trips to Mexico, but he sold the boat after his father died. Then he and Robin decided to look seriously for a cruising boat. They went to boat shows in Seattle and San Diego, and even developed a spreadsheet to rate the boats they were interested in on a scale of one to five.
Working with Bill and Michele King at Compass Point Yachts in Newport Beach, they settled on the Maritimo. They liked the large, climate-controlled flybridge, and the large-enough-for-serious-fishing cockpit. They ordered it with twin 800-hp Volvo diesels and direct shaft drives.
Then, after the delivery ceremony, they headed off for what Lyall calls “the most memorable shake-down cruise imaginable.” Going up the Queensland coast they hit 20-knot winds and eight-foot beam seas, but the new Maritimo just kept going. They loved it.
The boat is now being shipped to Seattle, and the Lyalls will cruise in the Pacific Northwest this summer before bringing the boat home to Southern California. They plan to have lots of family and friends along for cruises along the way. Read more:
http://www.maritimo.com.au/californians-doing-it-in-style-on-their-great-aussie-adventure/
