They left their New York apartment to live on a sailboat. A year later they gave up: “It was anything but the romanticized dream I had”

Escaping high rent and city life to sail and live in a comfortable sailboat on the sea has become a trend for many New Yorkers and citizens of different capital cities around the world.

Viral.At 15, Matt Panella was about to become a father and left school to work in construction for $8 an hour. At 22, he was making $200,000 a year

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Carly Miller and her partner Guy decided to make it real and left their lives in NYC. But the experience turned out very differently than they expected.

Leaving New York to live on a sailboat

In 2024 the couple returned from a month in London to their one-bedroom apartment in the East Village when Miller had an idea that would change their lives: “We should live on a boat,” she wrote in an essay for Business Insider.

Guy was a lifelong sailor, so his knowledge was crucial for living on the sea. And his startup made it possible to buy the boat. A month later, they moved onto a 38-foot sailboat with their dog

Their goal was to save money and, eventually, cross the Pacific Ocean. But it didn’t take long for Miller to realize that “boat life was anything but the romanticized dream I had envisioned.”

The main problems the couple had living their whole life on a sailboat

The man who sold them the boat joked that “boat” stood for “Bust Out Another Thousand.” He wasn’t far off. At first they spent $1,000 on an alternator and two months trying to fix a broken toilet.

When the autopilot failed, they couldn’t afford the $3,000 replacement, so one of them always had to stay at the wheel. On top of that, Marina fees could get up to $100 a night.

“What wore me down was the endless work and expense of keeping that space functioning,” she wrote.

The dangers they faced living on the sea

Besides the expenses, life at sea was not as peaceful as she had imagined. The couple took turns waking up every hour to check the anchor. Also, bad weather sometimes kept them stuck on the boat for days. “I was always ‘on’ at sea,” she wrote.

After about a year at sea, Miller was burned out. Instead of heading to the Pacific, they sailed the boat back to New York City. “For the first time in my life, I wanted routine and stability,” she wrote.

They still love sailing, just not owning a boat. “For now, I’m perfectly happy to have a home on land again.”