I once met a couple who had bought a boat on Lake Michigan, sailed
down the Miss. R and then across the gulf and then all over th
Bahamas. They were on their way back aqnd had stopped in
Apalachicola, FL and I asked how they had liked it. She had hated
it. He had liked it but her dislike was enough.
Another couple I know spent years re-building a boat to get ready to
go cruising and then finally after 10 years of planning, set off. For
some reason I still do not know, it din't work out and hey came back
within 4 months.
Another couple I know is working on their boat talking constantly
about how they will take off as soon as they retire. What if it
dosn't work out for them and they do not like it? That's a lot of
wasted effort and years.
Doesn't it make more sense to have a smaller boat you can afford with
far fewer things to go wrong so you can afford to go NOW? A smaller
boat you can afford allows you to arrange your work to allow more time
for shorter coat hopping trips until you finally get some real time.
I see too many big boats that sit at the dock rarely being sailed and
we all know the saying that the amount of use a sailboat gets is
inversely proportional to its size.