Um, honey, I think we’re up a creek

The citizens of Bluffton, a tourist-loving village near Hilton Head Island, have finally become used to seeing the Terra Wind cruise the local waterway.

But it wasn’t that way last September, just after the vehicle was completed. Julie Giljam was on the banks of the nearby May River when husband, John, who designed and built the amphibious luxury motor home, drove it into the water.

A woman came running. “I’ll call the fire department and the police! I think I have a rope!”

“For what?” Julie Giljam asked.

“To tie to your motor home! Can’t you see that it’s floating away?”

It’s supposed to, Julie Giljam told the woman, as she has since told countless other people who are shocked when they see the Terra Wind simply drive into the river and motor away at speeds up to a respectable 7 knots.

What’s it like? Well, the moments before we eased into the water may not have been the best time for Julie Giljam to mention that her husband “never had a single class in engineering.” But no need to worry, as it turned out.

Seconds after we drive into the May River, five minutes from the Giljams’ Bluffton home, the water is 25 feet deep. Dark water laps the side of the Terra Wind, covering the headlights, but we don’t care: We can lounge on the back porch, toss out a fishing line or tune in the 42-inch plasma-screen television. Or cook dinner, take a bubble bath or stretch out on the queen-size bed.

The cost of this vehicle is $1.2 million, but John Giljam says he can build one without some of the deluxe features for $850,000.

For whom, exactly? Julie Giljam suggests some potential customers might now own and live on houseboats, which are essentially confined to the body of water in which they are docked. Have an argument with your neighbors and, if you’re in a Terra Wind, you simply crank up the 330-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engine and move on down the road.

On pavement, the Terra Wind handles like any other 42-foot motor home does, though it may be a bit lighter on its feet. Giljam used a lot of aluminum to help keep the weight down. The rear-mounted diesel engine is quiet and powerful and can get 7 miles per gallon, Giljam says, aided by the flat, sealed bottom.

When the water beckons, there is really nothing that needs to be done in preparation. But for the best ride, the Giljams stop just short of the water and deploy a pair of large inflatable pontoons, one stored in each side of the Terra Wind. It takes just a few minutes, and it helps stabilize the ride. It also allows us to use the two room expanders that seamlessly slide out from the living quarters at the touch of a button.

The automatic road-going transmission gives way to a marine transmission that powers two large propellers in the rear. Each propeller has a rudder behind it, attached to the steering wheel. The big front tires also help steer: It is essentially driven on the water -- steer left, it goes left. As one would expect, it takes a moment or two for the Terra Wind to respond. A deft mix of throttle and steering input, though, swings the vehicle around with authority.

The Giljams built the Terra Wind for two reasons. One, they’d like to sell some; because of this, they decided to equip this first one with everything anyone might want. And, two: “I wanted a motor home,” John says.

Julie was living in Bluffton when John, a commercial pilot, had some engine trouble while passing over and landed at the airport. They met at lunch, she at one table, he at another. Love blossomed. John is from upstate New York and has a small factory there, and there’s another small factory next to their home in Bluffton. At both locations, employees build amphibious vehicles, though smaller and less deluxe than the Terra Wind.

Their company, Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International, pays the bills by constructing the sort of amphibious vehicles developed for troop deployment in World War II and used now as tour vehicles at resorts around the world. But those ex-military vehicles, called DUCKs -- a play on their military code designation of DUKW -- are old and difficult to maintain.

The company’s modern DUCKs can carry as many as 50 passengers. The Giljams are also building some interesting specialty vehicles on a smaller scale. One is an ocean-going Ford Excursion SUV, called the H2O EX, which Giljam and crew encased in aluminum and foam, upgraded with a rear diesel-powered jet drive and constructed with such rigidity that it can drive into a wave taller than the vehicle, become completely immersed, roll over and power out. The custom hybrid also has huge mounting points on top, so the customer -- a zillionaire computer mogul in South Florida -- can hook onto the vehicle and lift it aboard his yacht with a crane.

Also in the product plans: A motor home with a rear garage large enough to carry an S-Class Mercedes-Benz, and, for the security-conscious, a fully armored SUV called the Terramax.