After much deliberation, we sold Morning Star. We owned and loved her for almost sixteen years but it was time for a new adventure. Our friends Mike and Dotty had a sister ship of our boat that was lost in Hurricane Irma. We had lunch together one day and before the afternoon was over, they bought our girl.
We closed on Friday and yesterday bought a diesel Mercedes Sprinter camper van. Thinking old hippie van? That's not it. Maybe it's a van for a couple of old hippies but we have a tidy galley with a two-burner propane stove, a refrigerator and freezer, and a microwave/convection oven. There's a small bathroom, known as a "wet bath" because the shower isn't separate. In the back is a Hi-Def TV, Blue Ray player and a couch that converts to two twin beds. There is a generator, air conditioning and propane furnace and even a small solar panel on the roof. Pretty comfortable.
It's definitely a traveling machine, not the kind of thing you drive to Florida to stay for the winter. Our intention is to spend the summers at home in Maine and travel in the van in the winter. But for now, we are still moving in. You can't fit the contents of a 36' boat into a 22' van so we are packing, arranging, re-arranging, and unpacking. We will get figured out eventually. The stuff that doesn't fit will go back to Maine.
We will be driving our Honda CRV back to Maine after Christmas. In the mean time, There's lots of new stuff to learn and lots to do.I guess we need a different photo for the opening page. I better get to work!
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Friday, July 25, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Why RVs are like boats.
As time goes on we continue to learn more about the world of RVing. One thing we have learned is that, thanks to our boating experience, we already know a great deal. Well, maybe not a great deal, but there are so many similarities (i.e., its best if water stays on the outside) and that gives us a leg up on total newbies.
There are plumbing systems. First and foremost there is water - the stuff we need to live. On Morning Star (MS) it is stored in tanks in limited supply. Same with the motor home (MH). In fact, the MH's tanks are smaller MS's. Of course, if we are at a campground its pretty easy to resupply. Anyway, a full tank will last us about a week if we are conservative. Plus we can hook up to the hose connection in our site and have and unlimited supply of city water. Otherwise, we have a 12 volt pump to keep the water flowing at the showers and sinks, just like on MS.
I said systems because there is the less pleasant side of the equation...sewage. MS has its own treatment system which allows us to treat our sewage and pump it overboard, treated to exceed EPA standards. We can use it in most of the places we cruise. However the Great Lakes, Erie Canal and several other areas are strict No Discharge Zones. When we were in Canada a couple summers ago we had to use our holding tank which meant that about once a week we had to go to the Pump Out station and, well, pump out the holding tank. 50 gallons of yuck! The MH also has a holding tank and we have to visit the Dump Station about once a week. Its a pretty slick system involving rubber gloves and 4" hose (the"stinky slinky"). Gravity does most of the work. In addition to the black water tank just mentioned, there is also a gray water tank which captures and holds all of our water from the sinks and indoor shower. The gray water tank is dumped in the same manner as the black water. Much to our surprise, the gray water tank usually sets the pace for dump station trips. It fills before the black water does. Who knew?
Then there are electrical systems. As on Morning Star, there are both 12 volt and 120 volt systems in the MH. The 120 volt system, called "shore power" in both boat and MH parlance, is powered by a big thick cord plugged into a box at the dock or campsite. When we are anchored out a bank of batteries provides us with all the 12 volt power for lighting. We have an inverter which takes some of our 12 volt electricity and turns is into 120 volts for other uses. Its a black-box-kinda-thing. When we "anchor out" in the MH we use a similar 12 volt battery bank for lighting and an inverter. On both the boat and MH we have a generator available at the push of a button when we need to charge the batteries or run the air conditioners.
Both Morning Star and the MH have refrigerators that work on either 120 volt electric or propane.
Satellite TV. We watch DirecTV on the boat and the MH. Except when the trees get in the way. That's not a problem have had on the boat...yet!
Dinghies. Yes, we have dinghy for the MH. Not quite like the dinghy on the boat. That one is inflatable and has a 15 HP motor on the back. The MH has a Honda CR-V. Its towed behind the MH much like Morning Star's inflatable. In MH-speak, its called a "dinghy". Or a "Toad" because it is a towed vehicle.
So really, there are lots of similarities between an RV and a boat...except the RV NEVER drags anchor in the middle of the night!
There are plumbing systems. First and foremost there is water - the stuff we need to live. On Morning Star (MS) it is stored in tanks in limited supply. Same with the motor home (MH). In fact, the MH's tanks are smaller MS's. Of course, if we are at a campground its pretty easy to resupply. Anyway, a full tank will last us about a week if we are conservative. Plus we can hook up to the hose connection in our site and have and unlimited supply of city water. Otherwise, we have a 12 volt pump to keep the water flowing at the showers and sinks, just like on MS.
I said systems because there is the less pleasant side of the equation...sewage. MS has its own treatment system which allows us to treat our sewage and pump it overboard, treated to exceed EPA standards. We can use it in most of the places we cruise. However the Great Lakes, Erie Canal and several other areas are strict No Discharge Zones. When we were in Canada a couple summers ago we had to use our holding tank which meant that about once a week we had to go to the Pump Out station and, well, pump out the holding tank. 50 gallons of yuck! The MH also has a holding tank and we have to visit the Dump Station about once a week. Its a pretty slick system involving rubber gloves and 4" hose (the"stinky slinky"). Gravity does most of the work. In addition to the black water tank just mentioned, there is also a gray water tank which captures and holds all of our water from the sinks and indoor shower. The gray water tank is dumped in the same manner as the black water. Much to our surprise, the gray water tank usually sets the pace for dump station trips. It fills before the black water does. Who knew?
Then there are electrical systems. As on Morning Star, there are both 12 volt and 120 volt systems in the MH. The 120 volt system, called "shore power" in both boat and MH parlance, is powered by a big thick cord plugged into a box at the dock or campsite. When we are anchored out a bank of batteries provides us with all the 12 volt power for lighting. We have an inverter which takes some of our 12 volt electricity and turns is into 120 volts for other uses. Its a black-box-kinda-thing. When we "anchor out" in the MH we use a similar 12 volt battery bank for lighting and an inverter. On both the boat and MH we have a generator available at the push of a button when we need to charge the batteries or run the air conditioners.
Both Morning Star and the MH have refrigerators that work on either 120 volt electric or propane.
Satellite TV. We watch DirecTV on the boat and the MH. Except when the trees get in the way. That's not a problem have had on the boat...yet!
Dinghies. Yes, we have dinghy for the MH. Not quite like the dinghy on the boat. That one is inflatable and has a 15 HP motor on the back. The MH has a Honda CR-V. Its towed behind the MH much like Morning Star's inflatable. In MH-speak, its called a "dinghy". Or a "Toad" because it is a towed vehicle.
So really, there are lots of similarities between an RV and a boat...except the RV NEVER drags anchor in the middle of the night!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
What ever have we done?!
I'm not saying we were bored, but after being on the boat mostly full-time since 2006 and since we have traveled the Intracoastal Waterway ten times, we wanted to spice up our lives. So we visited the huge RV show in Tampa. There must be thousands of RVs there, from small pop-ups to multimillion dollar monster buses. Surely there is something there for everyone. Even for us.
Our discussion took place over a year. It started out as a small pop-up camper that we could use to explore Maine for a month in the summer. That was vetoed by Cindy but she thought a travel trailer would give us more amenities (think shiny aluminum Airstream). That was voted down by Randy...couldn't even imagine towing that through the mountains. We thought a small Class C (van chassis) might fill the bill. But the more we talked about it the more we realized that we wanted to do more than a month in Maine. Our criteria was:
When we visited the Winnebago display we hit pay dirt. We found a 30' Class A that met all of our needs...the Winnebago Sightseer 30A. Purpose-built chassis (Ford F53) with a 362HP V-10 gas engine. But we didn't want to buy a new model. Like cars and boats, RVs take a huge depreciation hit the first year...one we weren't willing to pay. The problem is that this particular model has only been made for two years. People just aren't trading them in yet - too new. We only found two 2012 models in the country. One was in upstate NY. The other was just outside of Boston. After some discussion with Camping World in Cocoa, FL, and with assurance from their counterparts in Mass that the coach was "mint", we gave them a deposit. They drove it to Florida in the middle of the worst blizzard is recent history! It arrived on the Friday before the SuperBowl and we drove up to take a look on Saturday. It was everything we had hoped it would be and we closed immediately!
We bought an RV!
We aren't giving up on Morning Star. Our plan is to spend a few months in the Bahamas and then store the boat for the summer. We will be heading to Maine, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island for the summer, then drift back south in the fall.
But as we like to say, "Our plans are written in water!"
Our discussion took place over a year. It started out as a small pop-up camper that we could use to explore Maine for a month in the summer. That was vetoed by Cindy but she thought a travel trailer would give us more amenities (think shiny aluminum Airstream). That was voted down by Randy...couldn't even imagine towing that through the mountains. We thought a small Class C (van chassis) might fill the bill. But the more we talked about it the more we realized that we wanted to do more than a month in Maine. Our criteria was:
- A comfortable place to sit at the end of the day.
- A comfortable queen bed with access on three sides for those late-night trips to the head.
- A decent shower.
- Adequate storage.
- We don't think we are cut out to be RV resort people. We want to "anchor out". That means adequate fuel, water, battery(with an inverter), propane, black and gray water tankage.
- Most importantly, we want access to as many of the State and National Parks and forests as possible. Get too big means getting shut out. A 30 footer will fit in a 40' site. A 40 footer in a 30' site...not so much.
When we visited the Winnebago display we hit pay dirt. We found a 30' Class A that met all of our needs...the Winnebago Sightseer 30A. Purpose-built chassis (Ford F53) with a 362HP V-10 gas engine. But we didn't want to buy a new model. Like cars and boats, RVs take a huge depreciation hit the first year...one we weren't willing to pay. The problem is that this particular model has only been made for two years. People just aren't trading them in yet - too new. We only found two 2012 models in the country. One was in upstate NY. The other was just outside of Boston. After some discussion with Camping World in Cocoa, FL, and with assurance from their counterparts in Mass that the coach was "mint", we gave them a deposit. They drove it to Florida in the middle of the worst blizzard is recent history! It arrived on the Friday before the SuperBowl and we drove up to take a look on Saturday. It was everything we had hoped it would be and we closed immediately!
We bought an RV!
We aren't giving up on Morning Star. Our plan is to spend a few months in the Bahamas and then store the boat for the summer. We will be heading to Maine, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island for the summer, then drift back south in the fall.
But as we like to say, "Our plans are written in water!"
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