Tom Campbell and Beth Davidow know they lead an unconventional life; they also know they’re living the dream.
He’s an award-winning wildlife and underwater cinematographer, and she’s a scientist and his filmmaker partner. Together they produce documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel, among other outlets.
A few months ago they took delivery of their new, Australian-made Maritimo 51 motor yacht in Newport Beach, California. “We’ve thrown the lines of a conventional life (not that ours was all that conventional) for a life at sea aboard our Maritimo custom 51-foot motor yacht,” she wrote at the time. Now they’ve cruised more than 1,200 miles down to the Sea of Cortez, where Beth wrote on their blog, wildlifevoyages.com, it’s “wicked hot” and they’re looking for places to dive and film that aren’t closed by the pandemic.
Tom and Beth have been living in Prescott, Arizona, and they also have lived in New Zealand for many years. They named their new boat Tangaroa, which is the Maori name for Guardian of the Sea. It’s hardly their first vessel. In fact, it’s his fifth. Most recently they owned a Cabo 35 together.
Now they plan to spend the next three to five years on the Maritimo, cruising to exotic locations for filming and diving. In looking for a new boat, Tom said he had many requirements, “including long-range cruising capacity, sea worthiness, reliability and workmanship, space, storage and ease of maintenance.” For them, he said, the Maritimo 51 was “the perfect choice.”
Tom has been a diver for about 60 years. He started as a combat diver in the Marine Corps, serving in Vietnam in 1964 and 1965, often on recon missions launched from submarines. He then worked for the California Highway Patrol for 22 years, teaching diving on the side, until his underwater photography career took off.
The Maritimo is powered by twin 670-hp Volvos, which have worked flawlessly. Because they plan for some long-distance cruises, the couple ordered a spare 200-gallon fuel tank. Now, if they cruise at 7 knots, the slowest possible speed, the boat burns only 2 gph, giving them a safe range of about 3,000 nm.
In the past week or so, they have moved farther up the Sea of Cortez to Loreto, taking their Highfield RIB around bays and coves, doing some snorkeling and planning dive trips. “The Sea of Cortez has many lovely places like this one and it’s a pleasure to drop Tangaroa’s anchor in such a location,” Beth wrote. “Living life aboard our Maritimo is living the dream.” Read more:
