My wife and I have done 2 major cruises (2+ years each) to the S. Pacific and back. Both times they were cut short by family problems.

You can certainly get away from most of it. Schedules still exist, but they are now seasonal (we have to be out of here by the start of the cyclone season) instead of daily or hourly. As someone else mentioned, you still have responsibilities, but they are of a different nature than the ones we have ashore. You still have to deal with officialdom, but it is the occasional immigration official instead of constant interaction with your boss.

You give up a lot as part of the cost of cruising (creature comforts and conveniences, direct access to family and friends, etc.) and for some, the balance tips the wrong way for one or both of the partners. But for us, the equation is very definitely in favor of the cruising lifestyle when family issues don't require us to be physically present back in the states.

There's always something interesting to do and the delightful ability of waking up each morning and deciding what we'd like to do today (go diving off that point, take a walk in the hills, move on to the next anchorage, head into town to resupply and enjoy some human company other than each other, etc.) is a priceless gift we give to ourselves. On that topic, one of the things I love about cruising, is how long range plans are written in loose sand in a rising tide. As an example, last time we were in Baja, at one point we were planning on heading down the Gold Coast of Mx in a month or so. Two weeks later, we left on the puddle jump, heading for Polynesia. Some friends of ours were dazzled by this. They had literally spent months getting their boat ready, tracking down items that they felt they needed and here we departed with only 2 weeks notice. The fact that we try to keep our boat ready for anything certainly helped, but it was mostly having done the puddle jump once before, we knew what to expect.

We expect to be back out there again in a couple of years. This time after some more time in Baja, we'll probably go more or less directly to Fiji (via Hawaii and maybe a couple of stops in the Kiribatis).