Kevin, I hope you and your spouse come to agreement on your joint plan, because the support of your spouse/significant other is critical. Yes, everything you set out to do while voyaging is more difficult than when land based. Yes, managing your water, food, maintenance and basics of living are more challenging, but therein lies the reward. Many times I've heard Marian tell the story of standing waist deep in water at the shoreline of Costa Rica while I hauled groceries from the taxi to the tender, including eight 5 liter bottles of water! She was laughing and saying "I'll never take Safeway for granted again!". Point being, that's a life experience we will share with our grandchildren some day. Yes, it was challenging, yes it meant we were away from the kids for 6 months at a time, no we didn't see the Rio Dulce or the Bay Islands of Panama, but we did sail into Portobello, where Sir Francis Drake lays at the bottom of the sea in a led coffin, where Columbus rode out a hurricane on his fourth voyage, where all the Inca and Aztec gold was shipped out of Central American, where people crawl on their hands and knees from as far away as Costa Rica to see the Black Christ. We anchored in Drakes Bay and I called my Dad on the sat phone to discuss rounding Punta Mala while the Lightning on Isla De Cano was lighting up the night sky. We spent nights in complete darkness, only the lights of our voyaging companions visible out the pilot house windows with the drone of the engine lulling to sleep. Imagine the pride my wife has in telling her friends, co-workers and children that she operated the Radar, she hailed people on the VHF, made course changes on the autopilot, who amongst her friends has those skills? Who among her friends and family has those life experiences, or ability to make that commitment? Not many, and she takes great pride in this, it's very important to her, as it is to me. Will we return to that lifestyle again someday? I don't know? I flew hang gliders as a young man. I lost my 20 year old brother in an accident and for some strange reason felt compelled to fly again following that. I strapped on a glider maybe half a dozen times when I then asked myself "what am I trying to prove? It's not bringing him back and I have a wife and children to support". So one day, at Tiger Mountain, where his ashes are spread, in his glider, I had what was probably the best flight of my life. After reaching cloud base and flying out to the glider field in Issaquah (a feat I had never previously accomplished) I landed and said that was it. Never got in a glider again. Point being, there is a time for all things. It's probably never going to be exactly the right time to go, but if you have the boat, it's mechanically ready and your finances can support it, then it's a decision for both of you. If keeping your marriage intact is important, then make the decision as a couple, willingly knowing that that is easily as or more important than a boat trip. There are voyagers who have taken these trips at the cost of their marriage and that's a very high price to pay. Good luck Kevin, whatever decision you make commit to it and never look back. Scott E. Bulger, Boatless in Seattle