I took a year off in 2000-2001. I'll intersperse some comments, but the bottom line
is that a year is not that long a time, you won't go that far, and you won't be out of
touch unless you really want to.


wrote in message ...
Im in Missouri and have never sailed a boat in my
entire life.

Most cruisers are long time boaters. However, we did meet some that were total
newbies and had little experience until they bought a boat and took off. One downside
is that lessons that I learned on a small club boat, you'll be learning on your
"home." Get as much experience as you can before splitting.



Im 46 years old. Some close friends just sold most
everything and took off into the Caribbean to take a
year off a "see the world".

Why "sell everything" if its only for a year? My parents did that in 1973. They sold
their house for $50K, and when they came back a year or so later it was worth $150K.
The only major item we offed was a car that I gave to my FIL so it would be in his
name, not mine.



This adventure they are taking intrigues me.

Id like some info on how one prepares for such a thing.
I don't mean how one prepares in terms of boats and
actual sailing...... but instead how you prepared in
your regular life such as:

(1) Financially. Did you keep your home bank acct or
are ther special ones for sailors on the move.

We had bills sent to Paytrust, which scans them so you can see them on the net, and
automatically pays according to rules you set up. You need to keep some cash in an
easily accessible account - something like Bank of America covers the whole East Coast
now.


Where did you have regular mail sent?

We left the house in the hands of my wife's brother. He sorted the mail and sent a
bundle to every few months. There are services that will do this for you.


Did you move all investments to safe ones such as
mutual funds?

Its hard to be a day trader, but your really don't need to do much special. It's
really not much different from going on a long vacation.

Or did you keep money in stocks and
equities and just not worry abt them while gone?

If you're the sort of person the reacts to every piece of news by buying or selling
stock, this could be a difficult endeavor. Or may its what you need. I don't recall
any major transactions during our trip, though I did keep my eye on a few key stocks.
I had the pleasure of starting the trip just after the "bubble burst" so I watched a
serious part of my "paper wealth" evaporate while we were travelling. However,
there's not much I would have done differently.



(2) Possessions. Did you see EVRYTHING you owned when
land lubbers? Or did you sell the bulk of it and put
rest in storage and then have monthly storage bill?

If you're planning on coming back in a year, why sell anything? Of course, this is a
good time to clean out the closet, but if you have a house, keeping that could be the
safest investment you could make. Certainly your boat isn't going to appreciate.



Also.... did you try and buy possessions that are
portable and easily packed and moved?

Certainly a lot of purchases were made with the trip in mind. But we also bought a
house knowing the trip was in our future. We did avoid technology items that would be
obsolete before we got to use them.