We left Florida 3 months and 4 days after we purchased 'Tropical Dance'. It was all due to Florida and California's 'be out of town in that time and there's no sales tax. We put the $17,000.00 we would have spent on sales tax into equipment.

We purchased the boat and started living on her in Florida ( California residents ) updating and outfitting her for what was to be a 2 year cruise. The boat had never been seriously cruised and was 18 years old so it took a lot of work. New dodger, inverter, Lexan windows custom SS frames, standing rigging, running rigging, refrigeration, electronics, davits, dingy, dingy engine, complete primary engine maintenance with all new hoses and a lot more. What we didn't finish installing we put in the V-birth for future instillation.

Never regretted it. It was a lot of work in a short time but we had air conditioning and were at a friends dock in Ft. Lauderdale so it was comfortable.

It's fun remembering that when we decided to cruise the Caribbean we just started making it happen. We sold our old boat in California, looked for 6 months and purchased one in Florida and then left 90 days later for a 3 year cruise.

If you know what you want in cruising amenities , have the money in the kitty and are good with your hands, there's no reason to need to purchase the boat years ahead of time. Pick the time, make a plan and take off.

That is unless you like spending years making her what you want.

Our old boat was a 1976 36 foot Freeport Islander. The new one is a 1983 Gulfstar Sailmaster 50