Brett has had a dream of traveling the world by sailboat.
I have tried to find a way to make this dream come true but have run into a few problems:

Problem 1 - We don’t have a lot of experience. (In fact, I have none.)
Most boats want deckhands or stewardesses who have experience. All of the paid positions are for experienced folks. Most of the unpaid positions are for experienced folks. The only other opportunities that I have found are for ‘cost sharing’ positions.

Problem 2 - We are doing this on a budget.
As you can guess, living on a boat traveling the world leaves little time for income producing activities and thus, we would be living off our trip fund savings for the time on the boat. The ‘cost sharing’ positions range from $100 per week per person to $500 per week per person plus the cost of food! This is not sustainable. It would be possible for a short period of time in order to gain experience and then try to get a free or paid position on a different boat.

Problem 3 - We would ideally like to travel together.
Most boats have positions for individuals - most do not have room for nor accept couples.

I have been searching for weeks to find opportunities for us to achieve Brett’s goal but have just about given up. After numerous NO responses. I had found two cost sharing opportunities. One was skeptical about taking a couple - the other was alright with it. One was $400/month/person flat fee and the other was $11/day/person but would vary based on actual expenses. Both are currently in the Caribbean. One tours the Caribbean until May and then parks the boat and returns to ‘normal’ life and the other is on a world transit.

Both would be great opportunities for us to gain valuable skills and needed experience. I just can’t say that either one feels like the right opportunity for us at this moment in time. I will keep looking, but I don’t know that sailing will be part of Exit 1 at this point unless an amazing opportunity falls from the sky.