If you read the literature concerning long distance sailing published
prior to the 1980s, much of it was something like this:
" We had never been on a boat in our lives, but we always wanted to
sail around the world. We saw a P.O.S. 30 for sale cheap that the
owner swore was only a "little rotten", so we sold all our belongings,
bought a book on how to navigate, and took off with our 9 kids". They
had one big advantage over modern sailors; When a storm hit they KNEW
there was NO WAY to get help from anyone. Instead of calling the USCG,
they figured out how to get through a storm on their own. The ones
that did not obviosly didn't survive to write books.

Joe