Ever since we announced our plans to do the Great Loop and start exploring the country by water – we’ve been flooded with one question, over and over.
What about the bus? Are you getting rid of Zephyr?
People are naturally curious after having followed along in our epic bus adventures for the past nearly six years, and some are downright concerned that we might be leaving Zephyr behind entirely.
No way!
We are excited about the life ahead of us on our 1999 Bayliner 4788 Y-Not, but we still absolutely love our bus – and the RVing lifestyle.
We want the best of both worlds – life in an amazing solar powered vintage bus on land, and new adventures in a spaciously comfortable yacht on the water.
The trick is… How can we combine the two?
I’ve actually been scheming up a pretty clever plan, and now that Cherie has been convinced we are at last ready to share it.
Here’s our quick video version presenting our plans.. or read on below…
You Can Take It With You
Back in the 1990’s you could book a tour aboard a floating campground.
Imagine pulling into a full hookup RV spot for a week or two, and then having the campground move while your RV stayed put.
Special barges carried dozens of RVs between St. Louis and New Orleans, or all the way up to Chattanooga.
”Welcome to the most unique campground in the whole world. Put your rig on true cruise control.’ Sit back, relax, and let the world go by.'”
When I first heard about these amazing trips years ago, the idea of taking an RV on the water became planted in my head.
And over the years, we’ve often intentionally taken long detours to seek out ferry crossings just to get a tiny taste of what RVing on the water might be like.
It was great – but only for a few hours at a time.
Ferry rides scratched an itch, but the itch never went away…
And Now, Time For a Crazy Idea
When we purchased Y-Not we discovered that it was being sold without a dinghy.
Sure – we could hunt down a traditional four person rigid inflatable boat to carry around on our swim platform.
But…
All those old dreams of RVs on the water came flooding back into my head.
Could we somehow possibly find a way to actually make Zephyr our dinghy?
It sounded a bit crazy to contemplate, but what if we could take Zephyr with us on the water?
Was it even possible?
The Rollerboat: Rollin on the River
It turns out some folks a few years ago had the same crazy idea, and had actually figure out a way to make it work.
Check out the Rollerboat, and watch this video:
The Rollerboat is a flashback to the floating campground of the 1990’s, only sized for a single RV.
But it is a lot more than a simple passive barge. It can actually maneuver on its own.
From the Rollerboat website:
“Rollerboat is designed to carry any RV motor home through the water, effectively converting the motor home into an amphibious vehicle. It uses the power of the motor home for propulsion by cradling the rear drive wheels between two rollers and driving them through a gearbox to the outdrive. Rollerboat is piloted from the driver’s seat of the motor home and steered with a ”fly-by-wire” system. It is designed to be loaded and unloaded from any boat launch ramp, thus allowing it to operate on lakes and rivers with varying water levels.”
That sounds perfect for us!
We’ve been researching the possibilities, and our plan now is to tow Zephyr on a Rollerboat behind Y-Not.
Yep – our dinghy will be technically larger than our yacht!
We’ve been doing some stealth R&D work, and it turns out the Rollerboat fly-by-wire steering system along with some custom software will allow us to integrate with Y-Not’s current autopilot, allowing the two hulls to operate in harmony while managing even the tightest maneuvers.
And having Zephyr along with us on the Great Loop will give us so many advantages:
- Solar Power – We’ll actually be able to power the boat systems off of Zephyr’s existing solar panels and lithium batteries via a power umbilical while anchored out. Of course we’ll still need a generator for heavier loads like more than a few hours of air conditioning a day. We may eventually add a wind power generator for a bit more power.
- Extra Space – We only have a single guest room aboard Y-Not, and if we have more guests than space that might get awkward. With Zephyr rafted up alongside, we’ll have a full detached guest suite! And with Zephyr’s cargo bays easily accessible, we will have more storage than we will know what to do with.
- Office / Testing Lab – We have a great office setup in Zephyr, and all our RV cellular and antenna testing customizations built in. Rather than duplicate all that work on Y-Not, we’ll just keep Zephyr around as a lab space.
- Ground Transportation – Best of all, when we want to explore inland we can just drive Zephyr ashore for a few days or weeks at a time. And since the Rollerboat is sized for 45′ RVs, we’ll actually still be able to ferry around our Mini Cooper for day trips and shopping excursions too.
It all adds up to the best of all worlds, with no compromises.
Boat, RV.
Explore together, or set off separately.
There really are no downsides!
A Bus Dinghy?!? Really???
While it is a nice fantasy to imagine taking everything with us on the water – that is NOT our goal.
We want a great no-compromises home on the water, and a great no-compromises home on wheels.
Combining the two would be all about immense compromises.
Can you even imagine the spectacle of two people and a cat trying to maneuver these two vessels through a lock, or into a marina?
And marinas charge by the foot – and the combined length of these two would be ridiculous!
So no, we are NOT planning to tow Zephyr around behind us on the Great Loop!
And we are not planning to sell her either.
Our goal is to divide our time between our two homes – most likely seasonally.
For the first year – we’ll probably be focused on boating in Florida. We already have storage lined up for the bus and Mini, and we intend to alternate time between bus and boat as we slowly get our sea legs.
But as we venture further afield and eventually get towards the northern half of the Great Loop, the boating season ends quickly as the seasons turn.
When it is time, we’ll put Y-Not into seasonal storage – and we’ll grab a one-way rental back to Zephyr to enjoy winter in our bus.
Eventually we hope to relocate Zephyr back to her original home turf of the desert southwest. Winters boondocking in the desert are heaven, and we think that will make the perfect balance for summers boating in the east.
But that is just the plan of the moment. It is all subject to change.
But two things are certain:
We are NOT selling Zephyr, and we are NOT buying a Rollerboat.
But we do have an amazing year of adventures ahead of us!
*grin*
Memory Lane:
Today (April 1st, 2017) is my eleventh nomadiversary.
ELEVEN YEARS (!!!) on the road — wow!
Here are some links to my (mostly) annual April 1st Nomadiversary posts.
Step back in time and check out some of our past adventures:
- Tenth Nomadiversary (2016) — I share my past history traveling with a powered paramotor, and our future plans to renovate a Zeppelin to be a flying RV. Meanwhile, we were actually already secretly starting our hunt for a boat.
- Ninth Nomadiversary (2015) — Sharing test results of LTTE boosters. Not to be confused with cellular LTE boosting, LTTE boosting (Libation: Technology Tribulation Elimination) is an even more critical element of a technomad’s tech arsenal.
- Eighth Nomadiversary (2014) — Way too swamped and stressed with launching RVillage and dealing with Millenicom madness to write anything wistful or witty.
- Seventh Nomadiversary (2013) — At last revealing the real reason I first decided to hit the road…
- Sixth Nomadiversary (2012) — Reminiscing about all the changes over the years.
- Fifth Nomadiversary (2011) — Giving up nomadism and buying a condo (not!) in the Virgin Islands.
- Fourth Nomadiversary (2010) — Discovering the secret prize that comes inside every box of wine.
- Third Nomadiversary (2009) — Camped on a beach near Malibu, watching dolphins frolic.
- Second Nomadiversary (2008) — Working with Cherie to custom design our Oliver, moving up from a trailer ideal for one to one made for two.
- First Nomadiversary (2007) — Preparing to set out with Cherie, reminiscing about my first very eventful year on the road — setting off solo and finding an amazing partner along the way.
All joking aside have you remotely considered putting one or the other of your homes in charter when you are not using it? Bareboat charters have been happening for decades and have always provided an excellent way to offset the cost of ownership. With a reputable company you would get insurance coverage and maintenance costs covered, and it is a certainty that boats and RVs will both decay faster in storage than they will in active use. Plus you would neatly avoid the cost of storage as a bonus. Your bus might be more difficult to manage this way but I wouldn’t be surprised if it couldn’t at least be parked in a RV park somewhere and rented out for the season. The main engine might not get use this way but at least the house systems would still be in operation on a regular basis.
The downside of course would be that somebody else was using your space unsupervised and you would have to live with the stress that somebody could wreck/sink your second home. You would have to find and work with a reliable company or companies to have full faith in the idea that your property would be well cared for. And the likelihood that stuff happens could occur would be significantly higher than if your other home was simply sitting in dry storage while not in use. Of course stuff can happen even in storage facility I guess.
I’m always thinking about the practical side of my dreams, or as I like to say it, “that’s nice but how I’m going to pay for all of this?” It has long occurred to me that anything I own that is not in use could be made to earn it’s keep rather than to sit and collect dust until I need it. It may be that I simply have a different set of concerns and priorities though. Kudos to y’all for living the dream. I hope that someday my family will meet yours on the open road.
Oh heck no.. we would not be comfortable at all having strangers living/staying in either of our homes. Both will be setup with very advanced & unique household systems that would be too difficult to educate a stranger on. And well, these are our homes that we’ve put our hearts and souls into creating to be unique to us. No way we could rest at night knowing a stranger is in our bed or drinking out of our wine glasses.
Besides, we want the bus/boat at the ready for us if we want to take a trip or we’re ready to return to them. Not to mention, each will be stored in areas that are definitely non-prime times of year for the season (boat in frozen winters, bus in the absurdly hot south.)
We wouldn’t approach this if we couldn’t afford it, and the risks to our homes is too great for the little bit of cash flow it might generate.
haha – good one. Since I just now read this blog (April 25), I didn’t get the April Fool’s connection until I read the comments. BUT – the Mississippi floating RV barge! How is that not still a thing?? What an awesome idea.
Interesting…. most people are leaving boating for RVing…. also, dreams are wonderful but the sea and water is not stable…. best of luck and love your show….
So happy and excited for ya’ll. May you be blessed with many more safe and exciting adventures and may you also find time to keep us all updated. Personally, we LOVE reading all about your adventures and look forward to your next postings.
I discovered you today. Chris and Cherie: I can’t put your blog away! I feel like I’ve known you a long time already! Congrats on tying the Y-Not! I’m at a point in my life that I’m yearning to venture out. Thanks from the Seacoast (southern Maine)!
Welcome to our little corner of the web!
Chris: This is not totally ridiculous – as last year’s idea wasn’t either: http://motorchannel.net/F1/trucks/man-hafencity-riverbus-floating-bus-in-hamburg
Wow, you had me going until the end! Behind on emails so just read it today, the 6th. Creative idea, though glad you sticking to the off and on bus then boat storage! Hope to meet up with you guys in the desert again.
I was totally eating this stuff up! Told the wife,”Man, these guys are GENIUSES!!”
#punkd #yagotme #neverreadanythingon #aprilfoolsday
Yeah, you got me with that one too! So creative!
April Fool! Took me a minute. Happy travels!
LOVED the post! At first I was like, wow, these people really are innovators! I wonder where they are going with this? Then, Oh My. I must be getting old. I don’t think that would work at all. When I got to the point of towing it behind the 4788, I realized it must be an April 1 post. Really well written. And as a future Looper, I am very intrigued with the idea of a 4788 with a collapsible arch. I hope to see some up close pictures of how they did it.
Lot of work and research for an April Fools Joke…LOVED IT! Please remember that where you store the RV Bus, your insurance covers loss, not the storage place. We lost one of our motor homes in storage lot fire in March 2014…thank goodness our insurance was good and it was all covered. Love the Boat. –Dave (GoingRvWay.com)
Hahahaha Second year in a row you got me!!!! I was picturing it in high winds. Hahahaha Good one!
Last year I caught on pretty early but this year you had me fooled until the end. Love you guys and your humor and your adventurous spirit. Thanks for sharing with us!
“Rollerboat” Happy April fools to you too! I think I like your plan better. Can’t imagine you giving up the bus anyway. I have seen those that live in their RV, stop, go to a stick house and they are always glad they stored it, as they are back in the RV before long.
Congrats and have a fun summer in your new boat!
PS: A lot more fun and privacy than a ferry. Hee Hee!
GENIUS! And with 45′ of space you can potentially tow friends around too. This will be the perfect solution for my sea sickness. No boat needed…I can stay in the RV. Love it!
Nina
Kiki would like to point out that staying in your RV can actually double the sea-sickness, because the RV suspension is swaying on top of the boat’s motion. *ick*
She much prefers having an entire boat to herself now. 🙂
Can you imagine? What a horrible idea :-)))) Thanks for a good “gotcha” to start the day! Congrats on your 11 years and best wishes for many more years of nomading.
Well you had me, I thought it was a great idea. So looking forward to your boating adventures.
LOL.. Okay, I fell for it! I thought these two really lost it 🙂
Nice one! Happy April 1st! 🙂
lol
Ah, once again, you had me going. Floating RV? OK, sounds reasonable. But towing it around behind the boat? Seemed like a bad idea, especially from such smart people. About 3/4 through the article, my morning coffee finally kicked in. DOH! Good one. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing yourselves with us.
It is April Fools Day…isn’t it…
April Fools!!!
Good One…….Did notice the posting date.