Since the success of youtube channels like La Vagabonde there have been many people showcasing 'a sailing life' and many doing so successfully. Could I ask what is the point you are making in posting this? It is a genuine question.
I with the_fixer as mostly I am not sympathetic to people doing silly things with poor planning, but at least they got up off the couch and had a crack at doing something. Hopefully this event won't stop them trying again, but that next time they will plan things an awful lot better. I would have thought it more appropriate for this site to post something with a title 'silly people continue to work 70 hour weeks to finance new Range Rover and larger house'.
Most people sailing overcome inexperience with conscientiousness and caution (it is their life at stake after all) but that clearly appears to have not been the case here;
"was about 8:45 p.m. when they sailed into a new port, navigating a channel they had never sailed before, in the dark, fog rolling in. Broadwell steered while Walsh stood at the bow, lighting their path with a spotlight, trying to figure out the navigational buoys. But the red and green buoys seemed out of place, they said, and the shoal wasn’t where their 2016-17 navigational charts said it should be. Had Hurricane Irma altered the channel?"
There is a lot wrong in that sentence. Another young youtube couple managed to crash their mast into a rising bridge and wrote off the boat doing so. However, most don't and have an incredible time.
We are a family of four and going sailing is definitely part of our post FIRE plans starting Summer 2019. Buying the boat is clearly not the most Mustachian, but the lifestyle can be. You become hyper aware of all sorts of elements of lifestyle inflation that 'Western Life' takes for granted,
. Energy usage - If diesel, solar panels and wind generators are your source of power, you soon start to appreciate it.
. Provisioning - You have to meal plan and batch shop.
. Thoughtless consumerism - You are removed and don't have the space for most of these temptations.
. Waste - You know exactly how much you are throwing away as you have to get in a dingy and take it to shore. Not to mention the plastic waste you will see in the oceans (don't get me started on plastic...).
I could list others.
For me, sailing ticks a lot of the boxes around the fears people have (and me) about what they will do with the time they have after retiring. For goal oriented people, which almost by definition everyone on this forum is, then you are replacing the FIRE goal with the complicated, challenging and fun goal of taking your family to see some of the world from a somewhat different perspective. I want my kids to retain perspective and remain amazed that you can fly from London to New York in 7 hours when it would take you three weeks to sail.
You also, I think, have a chance to develop new skills, becoming navigator, teacher, diesel engine engineer, electrician, plumber (gulp!), carpenter, seamsmith, and that's not including the 'fun' skills.