My wife and I are avid sailors with a keen sense of Wanderlust... we want to see and sail the far reaches of this great country in our golden years. We want to take our beautiful Anne Marie, a splendid Catalina 22 sailboat, tow it behind us and sail every inviting body of water we discover as we travel around the USA. We've been visiting lakes with our smaller truck camper, and we have enjoyed it so much we want to spend more time at it and have more room. And what better way to enjoy it than living in a magnificent 40' Motor Coach. But we faced one major dilemma... if we tow our sailboat behind our motorhome, what do we drive when we get there? And what do we use to launch the boat and pull her out again? Certainly not a massive 40' Motor Coach.

The problem was solved when we discovered the beautiful Gulf Stream Bounty Hunter, a unique 40' Motor Coach that is also a motorized toyhauler, featuring a 12' garage bay in the back. Point to any of the pix at the right to see larger photos. A little research yielded the perfect companion vehicle for this venture... a little Chevy Geo Tracker. Just 11'9" long and 2300 lbs, it fits snugly inside the garage bay of the coach, so we can carry it with us. With 4WD Low Range, the little Tracker will pull the Catalina up even the steepest boat launch ramp with relative ease. And with removable hardtop, we can enjoy the wind in our hair as we meander about the lower 48.

We have named our new coach the Windseeker, and designed a custom logo for the rear tailgate. Windseeker is the ultimate Road Warrior. Gulf Stream built only a few of these with the supreme powertrain and chassis... a powerful 6.7L Cummins Turbo Diesel (350 HP / 650 LB-FT torque) with an Allison 5 speed automatic transmission on a Freightliner custom chassis. It has no equal... other companies have attempted motorized toyhaulers, but not one we have seen even comes close. Windseeker was built to haul... but in almost decadent comfort. See the complete list of features of this DELUXE home on wheels.

After a successful shakedown cruise in fall of 2011, we plan to begin our adventures in the late spring of 2012 as we set out with our two intrepid Westies, Gracie and Corey to explore the great Pacific Northwest and get to know our new coach. On the docket will be Fern Ridge Reservoir in Oregon, Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, Lake Okanagan in B.C., Flathead Lake in Montana, before returning to Hayden Island Marina for the fall sailing season on the mighty Columbia River out of Portland OR. We will likely spend about a month in each place, or, who knows where the wind will blow us! Therein lies the real adventure.

In the next few years, with the invaluable aid of the Active Captain's Interactive Cruising Guidebook, we want to explore lakes heading north from our personal favorite, Canyon Lake, near San Antonio TX, to the mighty Lake Texoma, and up through Arkansas to Beaver Lake, Lake Stockton MO, on up to Lake Winnebago WI, and the incredible Lake of the Woods MN, down through St Louis and Nashville to Tellico Lake, TN, Lake Lanier near Atlanta, and then wintering in Florida. Followed by a tour up the east coast the following spring, to the Chesapeake Bay, then on to Lake George N.Y. and the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway and up to Maine.

Our portable local transportation for this grand adventure is the capable little Geo Tracker, built for Chevrolet by Suzuki who rebranded their popular Sidekick compact SUV. The Tracker was sold in both 2 and 4 door models from 1990-2004, but the original 2 door, made from 1990-1998, was very small, just 2300 lbs. & 11'9" in length, yet surprisingly roomy inside. These peppy little 4x4 convertible SUV's have something of a cult following, much like the small Jeeps CJ5 & CJ7. The Tracker and Sidekick are popular tow-behind vehicles for people in large motorhomes. But since we want to tow our sailboat, we needed a daily driver small enough to carry *on board* in the RV's 12' garage, yet with enough grunt to pull our sailboat up a boat launch ramp. Not many choices available! But the little Geo Tracker with its low range 4WD fits the bill perfectly.

But don't think for a minute this powerful hauler is little more than a motorized garage. Quite the contrary, this is a deluxe Motor Coach, designed to leave its wayfaring inhabitants wanting for little. With a 12' slide on the driver's side which slides out 3 feet, it turns the main cabin of the coach into a spacious living room with a very comfortable floorplan. With a leather convertible sofa behind the driver's seat and a convertible 4 seat dinette behind that, there's plenty of room for relaxed living in luxury. Behind the passenger seat it had another small sofa bed, which I replaced with a Lazyboy recliner. The large kitchen has a double stainless sink, gas range, lots of counter space, a convection/microwave oven and an ample sized AC/DC Dometic refrigerator.

The main cabin features an upgraded 37" LED HDTV and another smaller one as well. There are two surround sound CD stereos, and wifi internet capable Blu-ray player which can be routed to any of the 4 TV's on board. The 12x8 garage which carries the car and our bicycles on the road, doubles as an office and rec room once we arrive at our destination, with its own HD television and stereo. We roll out a persian rug, set up folding tables and chairs for our office, plus a spare twin bed, and assorted other gear, providing welcome additional living space. The bathroom is truly wondrous. With a 9 foot ceiling and a full sized 24x36" shower, it has a regular bathroom sink and porcelain head, and is nicely appointed in oak, granite-look counters and beautiful tile-look flooring, all with the most luxurious appearance but still relatively light weight in mind.

Storage is always at a premium in RV life, and there is ample cabinet space throughout the entire coach as well as large storage bins in the 'basement'. At the rear of the main cabin beyond the bathroom is a door leading to the garage, and adjacent to that there are a set of stairs leading up to the master bedroom area in the loft located above the garage. The master features a king sized bed (which we've upgraded to a Tempur-pedic Cloud), cabinets and another 24'' HDTV. And by not giving up 1/3 of our floorspace for a bedroom and putting it in a loft instead, we have the equivalent living space of a mythical 52' motor coach. There's also a skylight for sleeping under the stars which also provides access out onto the roof that also serves as a nice sundeck.

There are two roof mounted air conditioners, a furnace, 75 gallon fresh water tank, 10 gallon hot water heater, backup cameras, Satellite TV with Dish Network, onboard Viair 400p-rv air compressor, and a powerful 7500 Watt Generac diesel generator large enough to power both A/C's, the microwave and various lights and other appliances. Here's a dealer sales video. As you can see, Gulf Stream packed a lot of comfort, luxury, convenience and utility into this package and put it all on a heavy duty road warrior chassis and powertrain, providing us with the ability to effortlessly cruise the U.S. highway system, with our Catalina sailboat in tow, visiting as many lakes and waterways as we can for the next decade and beyond.

We feel most fortunate to have the time, health, energy, ability and the funds to live the dream. Traveling in our modest truck camper the past year and a half, we have met many older retired people living in their motorhomes full-time as they travel around this great country. The lure of this joyous nomadic lifestyle is undeniable. Besides the joys of sailing, we love discovering spots like this. Once we found this setup... the splendid Gulf Stream Bounty Hunter... enabling us to live and travel in luxurious comfort and tow our beloved Catalina sailboat with us, and yet be able to have something appropriate and fun to drive, like our little Geo Tracker, when we reach our various destinations... well, it seemed like an opportunity we simply could not pass up. As Walt Whitman so aptly put it in his Leaves of Grass: