At some point in the next few years (i.e. as soon as we have enough money) we plan to buy a boat, move aboard and experience the world. The plan is to start on the Left coast, enjoy all the ICW has to offer while learning how to operate our new vessel as well as figuring out how to function in a space roughly 1/10th the size of anywhere we've ever lived before. By the way, ICW stands for Inter-coastal Waterway and spans a great deal of our East Coast here in the US. It's mainly a protected water highway along the coast that runs from New York all the way down to Florida. Along the way are many places to explore while anchoring out and not having to pay for marina stays. Our dingy becomes our main form of transportation and our floating home moves as we decide to explore new places (or as weather permits/requires).
After getting our bearings on the ICW, which will hopefully include some time on a mooring off Manhattan, a good amount of time exploring DC as well as ports like Savannah and Charleston, we'll head into the Caribbean. Cuba is at the top of the list of places to visit and although I look forward to enjoying all those tropical beaches, I'm really looking forward to exploring the cultures in Central and South America. Eventually we want to head East across the Atlantic stopping in Bermuda, the Azores to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey. If we're still having fun, we'll probably head West again and consider a circumnavigation.
As you can see, we intend to live on our boat for many years so we've been looking at boats of all shapes and sizes to figure out what will work for us. This one in the photos was a great, though a rather small example of a catamaran. I like the idea of a catamaran because they are apparently smoother (nice since I tend to get seasick) and don't heel. I hate the idea of living any portion of my life on an angle greater than 5 degrees or needing a lee cloth to not be flung from my bed.
Other advantages of a catamaran include more space, having a salon and kitchen full of light with a view of the outside world and mainly not having to crawl into a cave like belly of a ship to get to my main living space. A couple of items that were missing from this well priced smaller catamaran that I'm not ready to do without included a decent sized refrigerator/freezer, an oven and not hitting my head while moving from the main salon to the hulls. I also like their expansive deck space and trampolines. Sure we could find a boat that would get us where we want to be, but let's face it, if our adventure at sea is to last any fair amount of time, we're going to want to be comfortable. After all, we all love camping but we wouldn't want to live out of a tent and cooler for several years. 
I have seen some mono hulls that I think I could live with. Primarily the ones that I prefer have lots of light coming in with a cabin that I can see out of and generally have only 3 or 4 steps to get down into. Morgan makes a boat that would work in a pinch. Compromise will most likely be a factor in our final decision on what kind of boat to get. Thank goodness Sean will make sure our choice of boat is actually seaworthy and will get us safely from point A to point B. My priorities for boat selection much different.
Even when we do have the budget, every dollar spent on the boat will be a dollar less we have to cruse with. The ideal situation would be to have invested the money to the point where there is monthly income to allow for a comfortable cruising lifestyle indefinitely. That's the goal!
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