[NoahsCaya]

Bob-M,
I am sorry you feel it necessacary to say that the one''s who just sell it all and go are unrealistic fools.
I knew the stock market was going to tank for years before it did! Any idiot could see that coming. Unfortunately, I have been out of work for almost a year now. The economy sucks, it isn''t getting better, no-one is spending money, no-one is hiring, they are shipping all our jobs off to India and after giving the corporate world everything I had, they just toss us aside like lint on their big polished mahagony desktops.
Well, I am sick of it. I refuse to try to work my butt off to make some corporate giant rich so that they can lay-off eveyone on a whim (god forbid the executives take a paycut or the stock price dips a little). The longer I stay here, trying to work and save money, the more money it costs to live and work. If my sailing only lasts a year or two, who cares. The boat is paid for and I am young and have lots of time. (sorry for the little rant)
I generally agree with a lot of your advise but I also believe that most people, Americans especially, are too scared to make a decision on their own, that is why you keep seeing the same question being asked over and over and over, sometimes by the same people. And that, unfortunately, is not a good quality for anyone in a self-sufficient situation. You have to be able to make a decision on your own (an informed one though), commit to it and follow thru.
Preperation is a very good idea but don''t discount those who actually still have some adventure left in them (or don''t have much choice). I must say the stress of worrying about money is much greater to me than the stress of learning to sail or living aboard or even being lost at sea.
Not everyone visiting here is a 40-50 y.o. professional with $50K+ in the bank. Some of us low-lifes are just trying to make it to some dream the best way we know how. For me it means buying a boat, selling everything I have (I have a ton of stuff), and moving aboard. Better to go broke in a beautiful place doing something I love than to do it here in the middle of the concrete jungle while trying to make somebody else rich. And as for health insurance, I have NEVER used it and since I lost my job, I haven''t had it anyway. So how is it different when sailing? I have been to third world countries, and it is MUCH, much, much, much cheaper to get medical attention there. Did I mention how much cheaper it is? The amount of money I spent on insurance last year alone would pay all of my doctors bills for the last 10 years of my life! (I never go to the doctor) Granted, it is nice to have, unfortunately for me it is now filed in the "niceties" catagory and not "necessary".

my 2¢