What it's like to LIVE on a solar powered boat! (week 1)

Last week we were digging holes in the woods to go to the bathroom. And this week we're going to be living on a 55 foot yacht in the Mediterranean that is completely powered by the sun. You really never know what you're going.

To get with this channel. So we appreciate you showing up every week.

So imagine if a Tesla had enough solar panels on top that you could drive it forever without ever having to.

Plug it in and charge it. This boat is basically that a Tesla.

On the water that you never have to charge. Last year we had the opportunity to spend two days on a silent yacht. And thanks to all 3 million of you who showed up to watch that.

Video, they've invited, invited us back.

But this time it's for two weeks and it's going to be completely different. Last time we were on board, we just bounced around the eastern tip of the island. This time we're taking the boat on a proper adventure. We'll be exploring the coastline of Mallorca and then making our first ever crossing to Ibiza. Ibiza.

I think you have to say it.

With a bit of a lisp. Plus, we'll be bringing along a few friends this first week on board. We have the most famous sailors on all of YouTube. Joining us, our friends Riley and Elena, their kids, Darwin and Lenny, and their nanny Rachel. It took a little convincing to get Riley on board because he's a bit of a sailing purist, but I think it's going to be really interest interesting to get his take on how silent cruising stacks up against sailing.

This is a big question.

Good morning from our home for the next two weeks. Still here in the boat parking lot because the winds got a little crazy. This is the Silent 55, which is actually the same size boat that we were on last year, except for this one is newer and has a totally different layout. Specifically where I'm standing right now, this is the biggest difference. Last year's boat, this was the main bedroom, but instead this one has a front exit, which we've been told makes the boat a lot more livable and comfortable. So far, all I can tell you is that it creates this beautiful breeze. But we did have to give up a lot of bedroom space for it. So we'll see which one we prefer. I guess this is like a day bed. We turned it into Rachel's bed. This is what I'm calling a hidden office. If this computer screen wasn't here, it would just look like a normal table. But if you pull out this drawer, it's actually a chair. Love this little detail.

Moving on.

This is the indoor.

Helm.

Helm.

But there's no steering wheel.

Yeah. That's weird.

Where's the wheel? It's up there.

Is it now?

There is no wheel.

There's no wheel.

It's like a volume button that steers the entire boat. Actually, I think it's this one.

Oh, dear. I don't like that. Steered by knobs.

Literally and figuratively.

We don't really know how any of this works yet, but our goal by the end of the week is to be able to control this entire thing by ourselves. Look, I'm zooming out of these people. Oh, what brand water are you drinking there? Aquafina.

That is the creepiest thing I've ever seen.

You'll see. This is a tour of a silent yacht that's actually being lived in. So we've really made ourselves at home in here. But the kitchen has everything you could ever want. Running water, drinking water, reverse.

So it's run through a series of membranes and so that's fresh water made from the ocean.

What do you say? Keep in mind, this is all being powered by the solar panels. So we have a dishwasher, this beautiful coffee maker, which made me really happy because we're going to be on here for a long time. And the kind of coffee I'm getting makes a big difference in my life. An induction stove, oven, slash microwave. I've never seen this before. If you just need a little something from the fridge, press here. Secret door. Grab whatever you need. As you'll see, we have completely stocked fridge. Yesterday, Elen and I were left on our own at the grocery store to provision the entire boat for everyone for the whole week. We may or may not be going a little overboard with the overboard.

Get it?

I think we have enough to feed an army. This is what happens when Elena and I are at the store bar. Oh, see, the boys are going to hang us. Last time we were on board, we had a private chef. It was glorious. But this time, when we were planning this trip with the Signing out team, we told them we wanted a completely different experience and we wanted to know what it was like to actually live on this boat. But for some reason, they didn't really trust us to take a two million dollar yacht out on our own. So that's why we have the amazing Captain Mike. But hopefully by the end of this week, we can take over and he can just relax. So basically, on this trip, we're going to be completely in charge of everything from the cooking to the cleaning, laundry, figuring out where we go, what route we take, it's going to be awesome. You've seen the upstairs, now let's head downstairs.

Uh oh.

There's water on the ground. On the front stern side we have our bedroom. Each bedroom comes with its own full bathroom. So we have a shower, sink, toilet, and it's all surprisingly spacious for being on both. You can actually see into the shower from the hallway into the toilet. That's kind of funny. The person this boat was built for really wanted to be able to access the bed from both sides.

I really like it because if Nate's over here and I'm over here and he has to get out of bed before me to make my coffee, he can just cross this way instead of crawling over me to go to the kitchen. Across the hall from us is captain Mike's room. Over here on the starboard side, this is Riley and Elena's room, which personally we think is best, but because we're good friends, we let them have it this week. Now for the fourth and final bedroom. This is the boys room. And now let's head outside. Out here on the back deck we have the outdoor seating area. My favorite part.

Is this thing. I haven't seen one in real life before, but I have a feeling it's gonna be the highlight of the trip. More beautiful seating. These trampolines are my absolute favorite part of catamarans. This is the hatch that goes down into our bedroom. Actually woke up this morning to Darwin going bye bye.

And last but not least, the fly bridge which has helm number two if you prefer to steer the boat from outside. And of course, all the solar panels. This is where the magic happens. On both sides of me are 400 watt solar panels. And there's even more up here. And those are what fuel this entire yacht. Mind blowing. All right, that does it for the tour. Now it's finally time to leave port.

It's a bit windy and wavy today, so we're not going to be driving up top from the fly bridge. Now I have to prepare this area and put the roof down so it.

Doesn'T catch extra wind.

Oh, Lenny, you want to put it down? So you're going to press right there.

Whoa. You're putting the roof down.

Whoa.

Nice job.

Engines are started.

You just press the button?

Yeah, I just put the key around. The propulsion is on now.

Yep.

Let's go.

We joked about wanting to take this boat out by ourselves, but I am so glad that Captain Mike is here to steer us between both of these million dollar super yachts this is stressful. Just to throw the ropes.

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So it's not exactly like a Tesla.

In the sense that there is a.

Diesel generator on board which can either be used for safety reasons, like let's say you were stuck out in the sea and you ran out of solar. Or if you want to go faster with the boat and you need more power than what the solar panels can generate, it will switch over to the diesel generator. So what we're doing right now is before we leave port, we're filling up with diesel and we're actually going to track how much diesel we have to use on the strip.

And we're off.

All right. We are leaving the port behind quite a bit rougher than the last time we were here, but we are officially silent cruising. Captain Mike, what are the size of the swells?

I would say 1.8, 1.92 meters.

It's like a man that's done that before.

It's all in the head.

Is there a need to stick your butt out?

Yeah.

Well, this has been a very exciting start to the trip. The waves have not really calmed down yet and unfortunately, Nate's starting to feel a little seasick. Thankfully, though, at this point in my life, I still have not experienced seasickness. So I'm just out here enjoying the ride, bouncing up and down.

Woo.

It's crazy. So hopefully it's not like this the whole time.

And now that we're still. I'm gonna make lunch for everybody. We're having tempeh club sandwiches.

Wow. Perfection.

Nice work, chef.

Kira, let's get you sound.

The cross breeze with both open doors is really doing its thing right now. This is one of those sandwiches that you have to commit to. Like, as soon as I pick it up, there's no putting it down.

1010 sandwich.

Really?

As your first meal as crew chef, you pass.

Woo. Woo.

I would clap for you, but I can't let go of my sandwich. Darwin, did you like Kara's guacamole?

My heart is racing for you. Look how hard we are. 1, 2, 3.

That was so scary. I really lost my pants.

The water feels amazing. I thought it was gonna be cool, but it's perfect.

So the girls got a swim in Riley and I just did a workout. And now that my musc are fully depleted, I'm going to give the flight board a try for the very first time. I have literally been following this company on Instagram for three years, watching all of the epic videos of this board just hovering effortlessly above the water, and I'm so excited to try it, But I have a feeling what I'm about to do is not going to look anything like those videos that I've seen on Instagram. I've actually heard this is really hard. Hello, everyone. Feel free to watch.

Nate's going to have an audience for his first time on the flight board.

Wow.

He's just surfing.

Whoa.

Whoa.

You look cool. Kinda. Here we go. Here we go.

He's going. Oh, yes.

Oh, my gosh.

Whoa.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, man, he's killing it.

Oh, my God. Wow.

Oh, that was a hard one. Up next is Royal taking it slow at the beginning there.

Foil was definitely hard, but I will say it's not as hard as I thought it was was going to be.

And the cool part about the flight.

Board is that it's also powered by electricity and it was charged here on board. Which means that ultimately the fun on.

The flight board came from the solar panels that are on top of the silent yacht.

Accidentally poured the liquor into the. Oh, my God.

Into what into the car.

So this island, which is Majorca, there's wind coming from the north. So we'll anchor on the southern part of the island in a nice protective bay. And then the next day we'll have a really easy trip down and we'll go to this island, which is Cabrera. I'll check with Mike, the captain. I've made my decision.

Dinner is served. We've prepared cauliflower burritos. I hope everybody likes garlic and cilantro.

Taco cat goat cheese pizza.

Got a little intense.

Why do we have so many pillows? Oh, no.

You see how much the boat is moving right now?

Just being rocked to sleep like babies.

Yeah. It was a great first full day on board.

What was your favorite part?

Honestly had a lot of fun on our sail over here.

So your favorite part was my least favorite part.

Yeah. What was your favorite part?

Definitely the flight board.

Good night.

Love you.

It's.

Good morning. The rain has subsided. It has turned into an absolutely beautiful day. But as you can see, we left.

A few things on the deck.

Someone left their hatch open, so this back area has turned into a giant drying rack.

The plan for today is to enjoy a little more time in this bay, maybe get a run in, maybe ride the flight by board some more.

And then this afternoon we'll make the 30 nautical mile cruise south to the island of Cabrera. Hopefully the the swell's calmed down a bit from yesterday.

I don't think it has.

So beautiful.

No warm up or anything, huh? We're straight into the uphills. Riley for some reason offered to hang back with the kids. Me and the girls are going on a run.

We love running.

There's a silent yacht and we're going this way. A lot of hills in Mallorca, but you could not ask for better weather for a ride. Honestly, I think we have some pretty rough waters ahead of us today. So I'm just trying to enjoy my nice, still non rocky time on land.

I wish I could just take this smell right now and just push it through the screen to you because these trees smell amazing. Also it's really interesting because from the water it looks like nothing's up here, but there's actually a bunch of little neighborhoods and houses up here.

As soon as I start running, my body's like, no, I'm not a runner. No, I am a runner. I'm just working on being a better runner.

I hate running, even. Even with this view.

No, this is why I do it. This is why I came. I love the idea of it but my body hates it.

Okay, the weather is looking good to go to the island today. We have about an hour until we leave. Nate's on flight board. I'm making everybody smoothies. The captain is baking bread. Could this day get any better?

Ice cold smoothie sound good?

It was so much harder this morning. Did you say smoothie?

Oh, you're the best.

This is the life, huh?

That's what I said. If I had it my way, 100, it'd be a tad bit warmer, but can't complain.

It's October.

Yeah, it's October.

All right. And we are off on the longest cruise that we have ever done on the silent yacht. It should take five to six hours to get to the island of Cabrera. It's windier today, so the water's a bit choppier than it was yesterday. But the swell's not as big, so there's not as much lurching up and down like there was yesterday. So I'm hoping that I'm not green by the time that we get there.

Cooking while on the move adds a little bit of a challenge. But it's fun as long as I don't break anything.

As she sets a glass container on the slick countertop.

This is probably very unique. Insane. Do not repeat anything you see.

That was a good one. Maybe it's better if we just take. Are you Stuff went everywhere.

There's just cucumber in weird places. Apparently some things have shifted in the fridge.

Riley has ninja fast dad reflexes. I watched him catch a bottle that was falling with one hand. I need something out of the fridge right now, But I know a pot is going to come flying out. Should I keep it slow? Oh, it's up here. It's up here. You see it?

Oh, yeah.

You're really down there to sacrifice your body.

Okay. Yep. Open.

I got back up.

Yes.

Well, that would have been a massive mess.

We're taking it out.

What was in there if it would have fallen Rice. Oh, that would have been a disaster.

I know.

That would have been a normal morning with my kids.

Was it before the glass falls out?

Well, lunch is ready. The problem is we're still next to the island and everybody fell asleep. So I've been standing in here for the last, like, hour making sure nothing would slide off the table. And then I realized I could just sit on the ground and maybe I can take a nap, too. We'll just have lunch later. Maybe this can be dinner.

We have just arrived in a beautiful, protected anchorage off the island of Cabrera. There are giant cliffs that are protecting us from the open ocean. There's a castle back there on the hill. It doesn't get much more beautiful than this. And the calmness that we're experiencing right now is so appreciated after the last four hours.

The little thing on the right hand side. Yeah, I would be trying to hook that and then pull it up and then we'll have a look at what's.

Going on if you can't get off.

And then I'll grab you.

Lenny, can you stand back?

Did you say you'll drive away if I fall in?

Yeah, stand back, mate.

Yeah, stand back. Ned has no idea what he's doing.

Got him?

Oh, yeah.

All right, now what I do.

How many men does it take to get a mooring bow? So far, three and a half, counting Lenny. I'm just watching, so I can't really say anything.

All right, we've tied off to a mooring buoy and it is finally time for lunch.

Somebody come start this line, people.

It has now been reheated three times.

Worth the wait.

Oh, definitely, definitely. Feel like everyone's always filming me. Eat alone does it all that's hard to see.

Hold on, mate.

What's.

What's up?

Shoes?

So we brought the dinghy down, loaded the entire family into the boat, drove over to shore with all intentions of hiking up the mountain to this fortress. And we get over there and I realize I got too used to living on a boat and I forgot I needed shoes. So now Riley and I are heading back to get my shoes and then we'll try to catch up with everyone. Okay, let's go.

Okay, now that I have shoes to climb the mountain, we should be timing.

Sunset just about right.

We can hear either a bleating goat or Darwin crying in the background. We left him on the beach with Rachel. With Rachel.

This is cool.

Jesus, Doc.

I can't see anything.

These stairs are so steep and so tight.

Wow. That was an adventure.

This is amazing.

This is beautiful.

So this must have been a guard tower for this hole. You can see the sunset and then over through this one, the silent yacht.

Let me know if you think about turning into a grumpy old captain.

He is.

If you want to see how we spend our time on the island of Cabrera and hear Riley and Elena's detailed review of the silent yacht. Be sure to head over to the sailing La Vagabond channel and watch their video. And while you're over there, you should definitely subscribe to their channel because not only are they awesome people that we feel lucky to call our friends, but they also make the best sailing videos on the Internet.

That can. Nate reported for duty.

I still cannot get over the fact that the stars are so bright that you can see them in the camera.

Apparently, my coffee hadn't kicked in yet.

Because I totally forgot to explain where we were going or why I was.

Up before the sun.

Today we're making the 80 nautical mile crossing from Mallorca to Ibiza, and we're estimating that it's going to take about 12 hours.

What a beautiful morning. The ocean is so much calmer than it was two days ago, which is going to make this crossing so much more enjoyable. It's about 7am the sky is just starting to get its first bit of color, and it is stunningly beautiful out here. I really thought cruising at night might be a bit stressful, but honestly, it's been one of the most relaxing mornings of my entire life. I'm not sure if you can hear it now, but we've turned the generator on so you can hear a slight hum. But most of the morning, we've just been cruising along with the electric engine, so it's been completely silent. And then you're just staring out into the darkness. In a way, I feel like it's as close as you can get to meditating without actually trying. It was just the ultimate relaxation. And I know Kara's enjoying her extra few hours of sleep in bed, but I really feel like she's missed out this morning. We've had a lot of great moments on this trip, but this is definitely one of my favorites.

Let's see if I can talk, Karen, to getting out of bed to come watch the sunrise with me.

How'd they turn out?

Not only does Captain Mike drive the boat, but he's also a baker. He's been baking us fresh bread every day. And this morning you make our sauce.

Since we're pretty much at sea all day today, I'm gonna get some chores done. Like our laundry. I didn't show you in the tour, but we do have a washer on board and it doubles as a dryer. How cool is that? It's just hiding in this wall. I believe it is in German. Washing Trachen bomb. Wally the Flagellate. Let's see if I can figure out.

How to use it.

I feel like nick swashy means nick.

Sw.

See what happens in about an hour.

How's that?

Are you hungry?

So besides my little Mexican fiesta we had the other day, we've pretty Much Been snacking for lunch, but since we have all the time in the world today, I'm whipping up my favorite pasta. So my friend Gina, who lives in Italy, taught me this recipe. And it's very Italian because it's extremely simple. All I've done so far is saute the mushrooms with garlic and salt and pepper. Then I cooked the noodles and removed them from the heat a little early so they're al dente. So the secret to this pasta sauce is catching the pasta water. Look how creamy and starchy it is.

Now I'm gonna put everything back in this pot and pretty much just add one more step. Just gonna coat the bottom with a.

Little of this pasta water.

Now add the pasta back to the pot. Dump the mushrooms and garlic on there. Don't leave any garlic behind. More water.

Now you pretty much just add some Parmesan and stir it up.

Boom.

We just made gourmet pasta. Lunch is served.

Wow.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I cannot emphasize enough how big of a difference this calm, beautiful water has made on this crossing. Ibiza is already on the horizon and this whole crossing is going by way too fast. We should be there in two or three hours, but I'd be happy to to do this until sunset. Also, the water out here is the deepest, most beautiful blue color I have ever seen. We are in a thousand feet of water right now.

Can you tell which clothes are ours? Black. Black, black, black, black.

Okay, so Sailor Riley has been on board the silent yacht for the last five days. So I wanted to get his thoughts on this.

Versus is sailing.

This is a big question. So Elena and I have been sailing around the world for the last sort of 10 years. And I've been humbled by the ocean on so many different occasions that I've been led to looking at the design of boats and from a safety and performance aspect. So when I'm coming on board, I'm wondering immediately, I'm not seeing the rooms and the tables and the color schemes or anything. I'm just thinking how much does it weigh, how fast can it go? But also how's it going to handle in 6 meter waves or 30 foot seas and all that sort of all those different things. So that's immediately what my mind goes to when I'm on board. But when I'm looking at a boat, I'm thinking, can it cross oceans and can it sail around the world? This wouldn't be the one that I would choose for that. But I don't think that that's what they've built it for. And what I think that they've built it for, it's really, really good at, which would be going from island to island in the Mediterranean, turning on the generator occasionally and then filling up with energy, like plugging into power at various marinas. That's what this boat does, and it's brilliant at that. The biggest pro is it is massive inside, and that's a comfort level. And if you're thinking about living on board for three, five, seven years, it cannot be overstated how awesome that is, especially if you got kids. So to me, that's the biggest pro, biggest drawback. It's not a boat that I would feel super comfortable in. In really challenging cond.

And finally, after 12 hours, we made it to Ibiza. First thing on the agenda, dance party.

Hey, guys.

We really hope you enjoyed part one of our silent yacht series. Make sure you don't miss part two, because we have a whole week left on board. And we have some more very special guests joining us in Ibiza. Also, if you're not signed up for our new daily travel newsletter, you're missing out. It's called the Daily Drop. All you have to do to sign up is scan this QR code and enter your email. It's completely free. You can read it from wherever you are in the world, and we think it's the best. You read the Daily Drop, you'll become a better traveler, you'll save money on your next trip, and you'll start your day with a smile because there's always a little joke.

Or me.

Then there. We hope you love it as much as we do. I know we're biased, but it's really awesome. Okay, thanks for watching.

Hope you're having a great day.

Bye.