It was around 10 years ago that Chris and I were chatting online in the weeks leading up to our first in-person meeting on October 18th, 2006.
During those increasingly deep initial conversations, we were coming to realize that we were attracted to each other for many reasons – and an unquenchable thirst for travel was high amongst them.
He was already living on the road solo, and I was splitting my time between working from home and working remotely as I pursued increasing amounts of personal travel.
We both had nomadic souls – and one of our shared dreams we talked about even before we first met was our ambitions of one day living on the water.
We actually still have the old chat logs from Sept 22nd, 2006:
Chris: I need to make sure I get some international vagabonding in.
Cherie: For sure!
Chris: I had a dream that I built a raft under my trailer and I was sailing it to Africa….
Cherie: ooo.. sailing on the open seas.
Chris: (Very much craving some on-water time….)
Cherie: One of my nomadic cravings is to spend a good bit of time living on a sailboat and sailing around.
Chris: Ditto.
Cherie: I think I should try getting some sleep. Been delightful chatting with you 🙂 And very much looking forward to our time together in a few weeks.
Chris: I am rarely so excited about something so far in advance. 🙂 But I am thinking we will click quiet well.
Cherie: Trying not to get expectations too high as to avoid disappointment. But I have strong suspicions we’ll at the very least get along quite well 😉
Chris: Indeed. 🙂
That first date obviously went well. Extremely well.
Just a few months later we had merged our lives and I had joined Chris in living on the road in his tiny little trailer.
But our dreams of other forms of nomadism were always present for us. We loved RVing – but at our core we were nomads, not just RVers.
Long time readers may even remember back in early 2010 we actually started a serious exploration into switching to sailing. We attended the Miami International Boat show, and we started looking at catamarans for sale.
We were itching for a change, but weren’t quite sure WHAT change was calling us next – so we put the boat hunt on the back burner.
Later that year, we had the opportunity to park our increasing small feeling Oliver Travel Trailer to spend the winter subletting a little cottage on the tropical island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands.
It was glorious, and just the reset we needed.
Island life gave us the opportunity to hang out with a cruising community, to go sailing with new friends we made, and we came back confident we weren’t ready for open water sailing just yet.
Our careers at the time simply were not compatible with taking on that big of a challenge, especially considering our need for absolute connectivity during weekdays to support our mission critical clients.
Instead we came back to the mainland re-ignited to continue RVing – but to change it up by seeking out a larger and more comfortable home on wheels.
That quest led to the vintage bus we call home today.
But Zephyr was always intended to be our land home, a base in which to pursue other adventures from.
We’ve enjoyed several multi-week non-RV adventure here and there. But not to the scale we originally thought. RV life is incredibly comfortable and easy for us.
But we want a new challenge, a new adventure.
This past spring, we made the decision – it’s time to get on the water.
For the quick video version of the upcoming adventure:
And the adventure calling us next is…
The Great Loop
The America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association (AGLCA) describes the Great Loop this way:
“The Great Loop is the continuous waterway that encompasses the eastern portion of North America including the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, the Canadian Heritage Canals, and the inland rivers of America’s heartland.”
According to Wikipedia, the Great Loop is:
“The circumnavigation of Eastern North America by water is known as the Great Loop. Also referred to as America’s Great Loop and the Great Circle Route, the trip varies from 5,000 to 7,500 miles depending on route options and detours taken. The boats used range from personal watercraft to 60-foot-long yachts. Both sailboats and powerboats travel the loop, but the most common boats are 34—45-foot recreational trawlers. The main factors that govern the size of the boats are the limited draft (5 ft) in some locations on the loop and the height of one bridge (19 ft) in Chicago.”
The Great Loop is an epic trip. But according to the AGLCA, less than 100 boats a year complete it.
Compared to other grand adventures like hiking the Appalachian Trail (~ 900 a year completed it) or climbing Mt. Everest (~ 800 year attempt it), that’s a relatively small number.
Especially for an expedition that has an extremely high exploration factor, and a relatively low risk factor.
And it strikes a deep chord in both of us.
So why the Great Loop?
This adventure has been on our radar for a long while. Even way back when we were catamaran shopping in 2010, a prime goal was to find a boat that would be able to tackle the Loop before heading out towards bluer waters.
We’ve chosen this as our next adventure for these reasons:
- Like RVing, most Loopers seem to be retirees. But this is also an obtainable adventure for folks like us who can work remotely. We’ll have similar challenges as we do in RVing as far as managing connectivity and balancing work, life & travel.
- We feel it’s safer than blue water or even coastal cruising, as we’ll (almost) always be within sight of land.
- It keeps us close to friends & family, with easy access back ‘home’ if we need it.
- We feel it’s different enough from RVing to be a new challenge (exciting!), but similar enough to have familiar elements (safe!). Heck, many of the stops we make in our RV now are already along the Loop – and we already have this ‘living in a small space together’ thing down.
- It’s something Kiki can join us for, and she’s already shopping for a kitty life jacket and Captain’s hat.
- Career wise, it makes sense. Loopers face similar connectivity challenges as North American RVers. This will allow us to keep deeply focused on the topics we cover over at RVMobileInternet.com – cellular, Wi-Fi, signal enhancing and satellite. All the while getting us more familiar with marine challenges & equipment – thus expanding our knowledge.
The Intentions
We kicked off our official start to our boat hunt last month when we attended the Newport Boat Show in Rhode Island (our 50th state!). We also attended a Great Loop Seminar, and got to hang out with a bunch of Loopers to pick their brains. (Gotta say, it’s nice being on the other side of the brain picking for a change!)
We’ve spent the time since then figuring out what we want in our ideal Loop boat, and we’ve just started touring a few contenders as we refine our focus.
We’re working with a buyer’s broker, and are meeting up with members of their team along our route to Florida to look at boats to continue learning and narrow down our preferences.
We’ll also be attending some organized rendezvouses along the way (seems kinda like the boating equivalent of an RV rally), and will hopefully have the opportunity to cross paths with more Loopers and other live-aboard boaters too.
Our intention is to get to Florida within the next month for holidays with family (routing coastal for optimal boat shopping), and to then get serious about finding the right boat for us.
We’d love to have our boat and be aboard by Spring to start (literally) learning the ropes.
The Boat
While the Loop can be done in a sailboat, and many do – it’s not the most ideal.
Because of so many fixed bridges along the route, you would spend a good portion of the time with the mast stepped down – missing out on a lot of great sailing opportunities. And because you’re in rivers and canals a lot of the route, you end up motoring most of the way regardless.
So the sailing dreams will stay on hold, and we will be getting a motorized boat of some sort.
We’re currently leaning towards a 36-45′ trawler or motor yacht.
Update: We shared our boat hunt parameters
The Pace
Many Loopers set out to do the Great Loop over the course of a year – following the seasons. But there’s no right way to do the Loop – it’s really more of a choose-your-own-adventure sort of thing.
We contemplated just parking the bus, buying a boat we could be minimally comfortable with for a year, doing the Loop all at once, and then selling the boat to return to RVing.
But we ultimately decided not to push ourselves. There’s so much awesome along the route, that we don’t want to rush it. Some might notice we’ve been hitting many spots along the Loop route by RV this summer (yes, intentional) and we’re so charmed we know we want to take our time.
If there’s anything that we’ve learned over our 10 years on the road is that we can’t see it all. We don’t like keeping schedules and commitments.
The 6,000 miles of the Loop is also about our preferred pace for RVing in a year. But you move a LOT slower on water (and it costs a lot more per mile!) making the distance more equivalent to 25,000+ miles on land. And that’s just too much for a year for us!
We’re well past the ‘must see it all in a year’ phase of our nomadic lifestyle.
We want a slower leisurely pace. That spreads out the fuel costs and increases the time we can spend in each segment of the Loop.
So, we’re starting out intending to spend at least 3 years splitting our time between the Loop and RVing. Boating will become mainly our spring/summer home (putting the boat ‘on the hard’ in storage once it gets too cold) and we will continue RVing in fall/winter in warmer climates.
This will allow us to take side trips along the Loop, such as exploring Lake Champlain.
And it allows us to spread out the much higher costs of boating balanced with lower cost RVing time.
The Obvious Questions
What about the Airship?!!?
Back in April we announced plans to move into a flying RV.
But unfortunately an affordable used Zeppelin has proven to be very hard to find.
Hopefully we will have a much easier time finding a boat suitable to tackle the Great Loop in.
(You did notice the date of that post, right?)
Are you getting rid of the bus?
No. Absolutely not.
We LOVE our bus. We’ve put a lot of effort recently into renovations and maintenance to make Zephyr an even more super awesome home on wheels. We love the RVing lifestyle, and we’re not ready to give it up or switch away from it.
We look at this as getting a second home – and we’ll still consider Zephyr our primary residence.
You know The Wynns and Our Odyssey beat you to the whole ‘Switch from RVing to Boating thing’ right?
There’s a reason we connected with these two other couples the first moments we met in person.
It wasn’t just because we were RVers pursuing our dreams – but because we all shared a core trait of wanderlust and a nomadic spirit. None of our adventures have ever been confined to just one style of travel, and we all had intentions of shaking it up. We’ve talked about our boat dreams for years.
Sean & Louise (Our Odyssey) switched to trawler life nearly 4 years ago and recently sold their awesome bus conversion (and they were instrumental in inspiring us to getting a bus too). While they are currently exploring inland waterways, they sought out a boat specifically built to cross oceans.
Nikki & Jason (Gone With The Wynns) just earlier this year switched from RVing to a sailing lifestyle, with intentions of Caribbean cruising and blue water adventures around the world.
Our Great Loop inland adventures are as unique to us as theirs are to them.
No one is copying anyone here. This isn’t a race of who gets there first.
We’re in touch with them both – and deeply value the learned experiences they’ve been able to share with us about the boat buying and transition process.
And of course, none of us are alone in being drawn to both boating and RVing. With so many traits shared (all of the advantages of traveling in your home), it’s actually a pretty common nomadic choice.
You know what BOAT means, right?
Yup, we’re prepared for hearing these phrases often:
- ‘BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand’.
- ‘You know what the two best days of my life where? Buying my boat, and selling my boat’.
- ‘Boats are holes in the water you throw money into.’
We’ve heard it all. We know these aren’t just trite sayings, and they have some hard realities behind them.
We know fuel will be expensive to move a boat of the size we’re planning on. We know marina slips charge by the foot. We know it’s constant maintenance.
These are all valid reasons we’ve put this adventure off in the past.
But we ain’t getting any younger. We’re at an ideal time in our lives to do this. And life is too fricken short to put our dreams off.
The past 10 years on the road, we’ve been able to maintain a decent income while decreasing our costs of living – which means we’ve been saving up for this while transitioning our careers to support it. We fully intend to keep working and earning an income to continue to afford the lifestyle we want. And we are not touching our retirement savings to do this either.
What about your RVing Content?
RVing has been such a big part of our lives for so long, that we know many of you have likely tuned in for the RVing specific content. And yes, you will start seeing boating content too from here on out.
But we’re not departing from RVing. It’ll still be half our year. And thus, likely still at least half our content.
Please keep in mind, we identify as nomads. Our blog name is Technomadia (technology enabled nomads), and it’s about our lives – not specifically RVing. It’s so happens that RVing has been our primary nomadic substrate.
We’ll try to keep the balance going forward to apply to both RVers and Cruisers. Things we’ve written about such as lithium batteries and solar are well established in the marine world too, and cruisers deal with many of the same issues (technology, getting their mail, domicile, healthcare, etc.)
And for sure, our business pursuit – RVMobileInternet.com – will continue to be our focus.
We’ll be dealing with many of the same connectivity challenges on the waters we’ll be exploring, that we’ll still be on top of the issues North American RVers face (and of course, RVing ourselves half the year). The waterways we’ll be following are also popular RVing routes, and not all that much different connectivity wise than RVing east of the Mississippi River.
We’ll still be testing out gear for cellular, signal enhancing, WiFi and covering the news stories for mobile internet consumers. And of course helping our members navigate their RVing connectivity challenges.
In many ways, we look at exploring the Great Loop as expanding our scope of services, and in no way have any intentions of reducing anything we currently offer (and perhaps expanding in the future).
So to our readers at RV Mobile Internet, and in particular our premium members – rest assured, we’re not going anywhere. In fact, it gets better as we’ll personally be navigating Canadian options too.
Heck – a lot of serious offshore boaters look down on the inland waterways as “RVing on the water”.
That is music to our ears, because that’s exactly what is so appealing about it to us!
So there it is! We’re excited to finally share with you what’s next for us. And we’re excited to have you along for the continuing journey.
i heartily approve of your next adventure. you will be seeing much of the very rural part of our country FROM THE WATER…..how exciting!
So excited for you! Can’t wait to hear about your upcoming adventures.
Bon Voyage!!!
Blog readers have no right to give you (or any of the others) heat for following your dreams. Shame on them! Bloggers understandably write about what they are doing at the moment. When all of those moments are surrounded by water, us land lubbers lose interest. I’m just thankful it appears you’ve found a way to balance the competing needs of each group. All the best as your own exciting dreams continue to be well lived.
Good Luck Looking forward to your adventures. Thanks for all the great information you provide.
Super cool!
Exciting news that will make for more great on your blog. If you ever consider cruising on a sailboat we would be happy to talk lifestye nuts and bolts….we lived aboard and cruised the East Coast and Bahamas for 5 years. We’re now full-timing in an RV and have almost crossed paths a couple of times…..good luck on the continuing adventure!
We are excited for you guys and eagerly following as we have considered doing this as well after a life on the road. (or maybe in conjunction to as you are doing!) We have some friends planning on doing this as well and have been learning lots about it. We are originally from Houghton Michigan and although WAAAY out of the way it would be really cool to visit there and do the portage canal as part of the loop. Very exciting and best of luck!
What a fun next adventure for you guys, it will be fun to follow along. We have had quite a few instances of
“needing to be near family” this Summer and understand that desire to be flexible and available. Enjoy your continued trek.
Wow! What a fascinating challenge! Look forward to all of it.
Glad you are not waiting. Too many people do and then they do not have the health 10 years later. If you can do it do it. Not like you are giving up RVing either, so best of both worlds.
OMG! I’m so happy for you! How exciting! It’s so great to be runnin’ down the dream, isn’t it? Congrats!
I’ve gone in the opposite direction, I started working on wooden boats back in the 80s (New York and Maine), and now I’m in a trailer. You will love life on the water. And make sure you take a lot of time to enjoy the Hudson Valley, it is a gem in so many ways (and my home for much of my NY sailing years).
Seems many nomadic souls have callings to boats and RVs.
Ho Man this is so great for you guys. I used to live on sailboat and also had a 32 ft trawler up in Puget Sound. Living the dream. we will stick to full time RV on land tho…
Surprised you are skipping the most gorgeous of all the Great Lakes – Lake Superior. Sounds like a wonderful adventure, however!
Lake Superior seems to be a very rare side trip option off the Loop.
Liz, I agree… Most of my sailing experience was in a 33′ Pearson on Lake Superior based in Bayfield, Wisconsin… Apostle Islands. We did crossings to the north shore Thunder Bay. And really loved taking advantage of the Saunas in a number of fishing camps where we were the only ones there. “leave it as you found it”. One time when Captain Steve was taken off the boat by the Coast Guard because of a severe Asthma attack, I became “Captain Bob”… It becomes a whole different mindset when one becomes the Captain rather than one of the motley crew. 🙂
Congrats on the next step. It has a familiar ring to it. We are full-timing in our RV, mostly up in Anacortes, WA while I telecommute for work. I’ve been researching boats for doing something similar up the Inside Passage. There are a couple of tools I’ve been using in hopes of avoiding the expense of failed surveys, a moisture meter and a thermo cam. The moisture meter isn’t for absolute readings so much as trends across different areas of stringers, hull, etc. These are just tools similar to what a surveyor might use. If you can find a good boat the first time, you might not need these. There is a bit of cross-over from RVing to boating. One of the blogs I follow, the Riveted blog, named their Nordic Tug boat Airship. They recently posted on their wifi in the wilderness success after a five month trip north to AK and back in much more remote areas than the Great Loop. http://riveted-blog.com/2016/10/wi-fi-in-the-wilderness/ That may be a slightly updated version of the MAX Transit reviewed on MIA. Enjoy your next set of adventures.
Thanks of the reminder, we need to be reading their blog more often. And indeed, the SinglePoint solutions are repackaged Max Transit or Max-BR1.
I have never heard of the “Great Loop”…I somehow have an odd feeling my husband is going to want to try to do this at some point in our lifetime, hopefully not in a kayak (his current preferred mode of transport). Congrats and happy shopping!
There’s currently someone doing the Loop on a stand up paddle board 🙂 Kayak would be fun .. hahaha. But thinking I want some basic amenities.
This is awesome guys! After my own heart! My own dream is to trade in my 5th wheel for a boat and be a live aboard. I grew up lobster fishing in Maine and the ocean still holds a place near and dear.
That’s interesting, I just made the switch from RV to sailboat. Something I’ve always had in the back of my mind but never made it to the top of my list until now. I’ll be sailing around the islands all winter then come back west to RV during summer (hurricane season). Lots in common between boating & RV’ing. After a year of boat searching, I found my cruising sailboat in Deltaville Va on the Chesapeake. I’m headed there this weekend to pick it up and start moving it south via the ICW. Good luck
Congrats on the new home on water!
Chris & Cherie, congrats on such a fabulous plan! This truly does sound like fun, and yes, a real blend of RV”ish” and water adventure. You’ll love it, and we’ll love following along.
I grew up on the Trent/Severn Canal (Peterborough Ont.), went to school on the Rideau Canal (Kingston Ont.) and took a motor/sailing trip down from Lake Ontario to NYC via the Erie/Hudson, All this was several decades ago (closing in on half a century, gasp!) so I’ll enjoy reliving it vicariously through you both.
“The Loop” is ten times more varied than my limited exposure, so be prepared to be thrilled. I couldn’t be happier for you. Richard (San Angelo, TX)
Watching videos and reading about the Trent/Severn Canal portion of the Loop has us so excited!
Check out the The Cruising Adventures of Wally and Darcy…..they are friends of ours that sold the rv and bought a boat a couple of years ago and are doing the loop. 🙂 Ed
Wow, this sounds amazing and full of adventures for you both! Haven’t heard of the Grand Loop before so will be a learning process to follow your journeys. Can’t wait to hear more!
Does anyone do this type of boating with electric motors? Maybe even with solar?
Wow, what an exciting time for you! Your writing shows your enthusiasm for this next adventure. Looking forward to hearing about it as you go!
My wife and I have been following y’all for years. Bought your very informative books. Even joined RVillage when it was launched. We are happy for y’all. Enjoying life is awesome. Have fun on your new adventure. That’s what we are doing. RVillage – We are Wondering Wanderers
Wanderer – A person who travels aimlessly
Wondering – desire to be curious to know something
You two are so excited that you can’t hardly complete a sentence without jumping in on each other (polite way of saying interrupting!) but I just love to see you so enthusiastic about your plans. Just as with the Wynns, you are young (well compared to me!) and have no responsibilities to children or family member care-giving. So, go for it!! Looking forward to following your boat purchase and future travels.
Hahaha.. we complete each other’s sentences all the time, the excitement just adds to it 🙂
And for sure, we feel we have a window of opportunity right now while the parents are all pretty darn healthy. We know without a doubt we’ll want to be there for our loved ones, like we were for my dad, when that time comes (hopefully far far off in the future).
This is so cool!! A huge dream of ours, while living in Buffalo on the Great Lakes and Erie Canal it was always at our fingertips… maybe someday. But you should definitely be sure to check out Canalside in Buffalo – it is on the water where goods used to be transferred from lake ships to canal barges – they do a ton of free concerts and events there and many people watch them from their boats.
We look forward to being up that way and checking it out!
Most Loopers never make it to Buffalo since doing the western half of the Eerie canal requires getting under 15’6″ bridges that a lot of boats can’t handle. Instead they head north into Lake Ontario via the Oswego canal.
I’d love to keep the option open of doing the full Eerie, so we are hoping to find a boat that can squeeze under the lowest bridges so that we can.
I’ll be posting more about our boat hunt goals in a few days. Fingers crossed that we can end up making it to Buffalo someday!
The adventure continues! Looks forward to living it right alongside. Keep us posted
Awesome decision – I look forward to your continued adventures in nomadism….
Congratulations on your new plans! This has been on our bucket list as well and have done a lot of research on it. One book we LOVED reading was Honey, Let’s Get a Boat… A Cruising Adventure of America’s Great Loop – https://amzn.com/0966914031
A GREAT Book, that is fun to read and exciting to follow this couple on there journey on the loop. It is a MUST read you will love it.
Look forward to continue to follow your journeys
I’m actually in the middle of their ‘how to’ follow on book right now: http://amzn.to/2diK6P1
This sounds like so much fun!! I loved reading your initial messages to each other, how sweet. Isn’t it wonderful that you met your soulmate? I’m not sure everyone does. ( though I suspect a lot of full time rv’ers did)
Don’t feel the need to keep explaining that you were already considering the boat years ago.
I feel people must be giving you a bit of a hard time for you to mention. It sounds like another awesome journey. Maybe we’ll have to copy off you.
We both recognized pretty early on we had met our match, and feel so blessed we did.
We indeed have had a few comments, even just to us hinting a change was coming earlier this year, with remarks that were less than kind that we were just being copycats. It’s probably left us feeling a bit defensive.
Thank you guys for sharing. We love to come along on your adventures vicariously while we dream of our own someday adventures…
You go guys! I discovered the intercostal while on a family vacation to Myrtle Beach. It caused me to look at boats long before I ever started looking into RVs. I was on a trip to London and grabbed several boating magazines, and was enthralled with a families trip, on a trawler, to Alaska and places north…then back to their starting point in San Francisco. Amazing trips to be had. I am excited for you!
One thing is for sure.. there is no lack of adventures to explore on this planet. 🙂
This is such an awesome idea! Good luck with you boat shopping and plans for the loop! Love how excited you both are….thanks for all your articles and all you share much appreciated! We’ll be full timing soon….wishing you all the best!
And wishing you all the best as you embark on your new adventure!
I am excited to hear you are heading for the Great Loop. I can’t wait to follow your next adventure. My wife and I did the Loop in 2012/2013 on our 22′ Hunter sailboat and had the time of our lives (our blog starts at http://www.inventurer.com/category/september-2012-posts/page/2/). We spent 400 days traveling almost 7,000 miles (all pushed by Boris – our 8hp Evinrude outboard). I like to tell people it was the equivalent of 27 years of 2-week vacations. Every day was a new adventure. We made lifelong friends and created memories to last a lifetime. We hope to do it again someday. Good luck on your next journey.
What an amazing journey! Every Looper we’ve communicated with always remarks on the sheer variety of the route, amazing adventures and the friends they’ve made.
Wow – thanks for sharing the link, it is fun to peak in on other people’s loop adventures.
I imagine you must have had incredible fuel economy with that small efficient boat and tiny engine.
Did you manage to use your sails at all during the trip?
Surprisingly yes. Even while traveling on the Upper Mississippi. We used our sails as a motor assist as often as we could. We didn’t have to lower our mast until we headed north of Waterford NY through all the canals in Canada. Most of our fellow Loopers went the powerboat route and we certainly enjoyed hanging out on their fly bridges. We used about 1,000 gal of fuel (about 7 mpg) (http://www.inventurer.com/2013/12/01/the-last-word/) – we could have done even better with a newer 4 stroke but the older motor worked great and was easy to maintain. Good luck on your boat search.
Hey you guys, Congrats on your next adventure! I know I have thrown this out there while you were on your way north so I will toss it out again. We are just north of Annapolis MD and we live on the water! So, if you are looking at boats in this area and need a place to park or if when you get your boat and happen to be cruising in this area and need a dock we have a spot for you.
Kathy Siske
Thanks so much Kathy! We’ve actually been hanging out in the North East, MD and Bear, DE area the past couple of days, and did some shopping down on Kent Island and Chesapeake City last week. But, we’re heading south in the morning. Sorry to have missed you – but will definitely keep you in mind for when we’re Looping up this way again.
I knew very little about looping until you mentioned it. What a great adventure… I have always been attracted to and sailed sailboats aka “rag haulers”. Now I have a new appreciation for powerboats. I read where the loop can include a north leg up the Maine coast, and around to and up the St. Lawrence… Quebec City is one of our most favorite “foreign” destinations. So many ways to Adventure! Excited for your new adventure. Cheers!
Indeed, one of the Loop alternate routes is basically following the route our cruise took back in May. It’s a much longer route, and involves more open water – so likely more advanced for us on our first pass. But we definitely are smitten with that whole area that it’ll be very tempting!
Looping the long way all around Nova Scotia and up the St. Lawrence is rarely done by most Loopers because of how much open water there is.
But cruising downstream from Montreal to Quebec City and then back up is a great side-trip, and one that I hope we end up tackling. *grin*
What a wonderful plan to add to your nomadic life. It really seems like RVing on the water to me so of course I can’t wait to come along on the adventure. I’m actually bummed that some may feel you need to justify your decision to your readers, and would think it’s our place to provide unsolicited permission to make your dream your own. Enjoy the prep and planning and all the excitement of seeing yourselves on the water in the months ahead!!
We are so excited!
And we wish we didn’t have to put the reasoning/justification upfront so much.. but we’ve learned over the years, there are some who feel they have a place to question/direct the decisions of those who share their lives publicly. We saw the Wynns take a fair share of criticism for their transition, and we’ve taken some of our own during past changes.
It’s just easier to try to politely head it off at the pass 🙂
Have no interest in boating or boating travel blogs etc buy will still read the RVing ones. Have a nice time 🙂
We’ll aim to keep it balanced and in perspective .. thank for sticking it out. We suspect we’ll have summer and winter readers 🙂
Wow, I don’t know what to say, except I’m really happy and excited for you! Of course, it pushes my dream of meeting you in person on the road back a bit, but I admire your courage to follow your dreams and still be able to work! I wish you all the best!
One of the things we’re really looking forward to with this adventure is that we’ll be boating many places where RVers go. So hopefully we’re able to continue hang outs where the water and asphalt meet.
For what it is worth our friends are loving the loop and living on the water…I think this is their third year and they are still going strong…(they are part of the look organization) and they have been taking their time in doing it..What a great adventure you are about to embark on…
We love that Loopers, like RVers, each have their own approach to it.
Awesome news! Welcome to the Great Lakes! You are going to have a blast on your Great Loop Adventure! I’m a Great Lakes/BVI sailor at heart…but a Trawler is definitely the way to do the Loop! Have fun! 🙂
As much as sailing calls us, we’re actually gotten quite excited by the living space a motor yacht / trawler will be able to provide for us.
Yes! I am super excited to follow along on this next adventure. I am also selfishly hoping I can get an invite to come stay aboard. 😉 Happy boat shopping!
You guys are totally invited (and hey, crew swap! hahah), and looking forward to opportunities to share sundowners together. I’m sure we’re going to need some pointers to master docking like you have! 🙂
We’ll take you guys on some Looping adventures if you’ll take us out to get our sailing fix. 🙂
That is exactly what I was thinking! That way we can all have the cake and eat it too!
Don’t forget the ice cream too. There must be ice cream. 😉
How exciting! I’m so excited for you both! I found your site about 5 years ago since traveling has been on my mind for quite awhile now. My husband and I are waiting to take Delivery on our new RV that we will be living in starting this Dec. on Oct. 20th. I’ve been going through all kinds of videos and blog posts on your site recently, and soaking up all the great tips and information that you share so freely. Thank you so much for that! I love watching the Wynn’s new adventures too. I can’t wait to see your new boat and will continue to follow along with all the fun! Congratulations!
Congrats on your approaching date to pick up your RV.. and the adventures ahead of you!
I’m very happy to see that you both are not intimidated by new challenges, good for you!
Wow! This is exciting news and I wish you both all the best in this endeavor. It’ll be quite an undertaking for sure. I’ll be following your adventures with you. A trawler is the best choice in my opinion, just to darn expensive to buy new for me though. Good luck!
No way we can afford new either 🙂
WOW–I am hooked on the Riveted blog about cruising the northeast coast of Alaska. Michael researched boats this summer thinking to do the same thing when he stumbled across the “Loop”–exciting for you guys!
The Loop offers so much, excited to start sharing the journey.
All righty then, this will be fun!
I love hearing about your new adventure. In my humble opinion a trawler is the right boat for your plan. We had a Grand Banks trawler for 13 years before switching to a motorhome. The 35-40 diesel trawlers are the most dependable yachts for this kind of travel. The fuel consumption may not be much of an issue because most of us would only use our boats for similar hours per day as an RV. And my trawler used way less gallons per hour than my RV. Granted we didn’t cover as many miles, but that was never the point of cruising. A motoryacht design in a 40′ size will give you more room than you currently have in your bus. The naturally aspirated diesels used in these boats are amazingly simple and you will have no problem learning about them after owning a bus. So many system are the same between trawler and RV.
Many people feel a twin engine is necessary but we loved our single engine boat and found that handling was great once we learned the ropes.
We also do the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter split to our year. We enjoy RV’ing and Mexico as our split. A variety makes each part better. Twice a year I am excited to do the switch.
Good luck boat hunting. Let the adventure begin
Thanks Russ.. we’re excited to start mixing it up! And thrilled to hear from others who already have chosen that path.
Wow, congrats you guys! After 10 years I’m sure you’re more than ready for this change! As always we know you’ve don a ton of in-depth research and go into this with eyes wide open. Your experiences is YOURS and unique to any other so good for you! Keep on showing others that dreams change and anything is possible and there is no excuse for not going after what you want in life! Oh and thanks for sharing the excerpt of your online chatting from 2006… Marc and I have kept ours too and it’s always super fun to revisit and read on anniversaries. So glad we have a written keepsake of our budding relationship 🙂 Happy Trails and Happy Sails to you all!
Awww.. sappy online romances 🙂 Glad to hear we’re not the only ones to have saved our transcripts.
I’m very excited for you!
You are probably already familiar with this website but my favorite RV galley resource is TheBoatGalley.com. I never needed to buy pot clamps to keep my pot on the stove, though. 🙂
We’re hoping that staying in more inland waterways we won’t need pot clamps too often 🙂
SO excited for you guys! I am going to drive the shore line waving. 🙂 Big love to you both during what must an AWESOMELY exciting and fun time for you while you hunt it out for your new digs. 🙂 You inspire me. (duh)
*blush* Curtis. Thanks. Now, time to get Marina Village online 🙂
Very nice post, and loved the video! Just love you guys! Good luck, and happy boat hunting!
Love you guys too, and can’t wait to have you aboard! A comfy second stateroom for friends is an absolute must for us.
Some day soon our dingy will be making a stop at your dock. *grin*
Sounds like a lot of fun. We’ll enjoy following your new mode of travel.
Exciting…very happy for you! So, come see us…… We have deep water and a popular “hurricane hole” right in front of the house. Enjoy your new adventure! 🙂
Ooo… hadn’t considered we’d get ‘hole’ surfing invites so soon!! Exciting!!
Guys…this is amazing! Can’t wait to follow along with the next part of your journey!
Awesome! Can’t wait to follow along on this new adventure!
You’re totally right about cruising and RVing being very similar. I’ve been a cruiser for years and yet follow you for connectivity tips. And lots of cruisers turn to RVing . . .
Fantastic to hear from someone with experience! Cruising and RVing share so many traits, it’s no wonder there’s such a cross over between them.
Your new toad?
http://www.rangertugs.com/models.aspx?itemid=2634&prodid=12352&pagetitle=Ranger+Tugs+R-27
The R-27 is trailerable, and looks to be quite liveable.
We actually got to look at those at the boat show.. super cute, indeed. But we’ve done our days in super small spaces, and we’re ready for something a little roomier 🙂 We’ll share what we’re looking at soon.
I am SO excited for you and this next stage of your nomadic adventures!!!
Nina
Thank you Nina… we’re also ridiculously excited to seeing you guys soon!