You are right it is interesting.

One thing I would add is it's the toughest thing we've ever done - from ocean gales to walking miles to find shops in 90+ temperatures. And it is true that cruising is boat maintenance in exotic places.

However, I'm most certainly not trying to put people off - it's tough but very rewarding, we're having a great time. The other truism is that the first year is worst, there is so much to learn, but hang in there it gets better every year.

The one mistake we made was that we really wanted to go ocean sailing and we sailed over 5,000 miles in our first nine months. Pointless if you are long term cruising and we were seriously tired.