How we did it: A year at sea

(Money Magazine) -- By Doug Vibbert, 40, Annapolis, MD. As told to Daphne Mosher My wife Cindy and I had a dream to spend a year on our own sailboat. To save for it, we put away 20 percent of our combined income every year and banked the profits from $10,000 we had invested in stocks.

After three years, we were able to make the $25,000 down payment for a 36-foot catamaran. We moved aboard our boat in 1998. We lived frugally: no fancy cars or clothes and few meals out.

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By 2001 we had the $30,000 we needed to make the boat payments and support ourselves for a year at sea.

That fall we left our jobs (I was a computer engineer; Cindy was a TV producer) and gave up a $145,000 income. With no guarantee of future employment, we set sail for the Bahamas.

It was amazing how little we lived on when there weren't utility bills or car payments. When we got back, we had $300 left over.

Within weeks of returning, I got my old job back and Cindy began freelancing. We now have two big additions to our lives: our two-year-old son Zachary and the Majestic, a 44-foot oceangoing catamaran.

For our next journey, we plan to sail the world as a family. It will cost us $40,000, and we've already saved more than half of that. We shove off in four years.

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