Leaving a Manhattan apartment for life on a sailboat

Last October, husband and wife Jon Vidar and Victoria Fine left a very nice Manhattan apartment when their landlord threatened to raise their rent by $1,000.

"We had a two-bedroom apartment with outdoor space and a washer and dryer in Nolita," Vidar said.

Jon and Victoria abandoned the island of Manhattan for the waters surrounding it, living full time on a 37-foot, four-decade-old sailboat floating in a slip on New York Harbor.

"We like a more laid-back lifestyle," Vidar said. "We like working for ourselves."

Neither grew up on or around boats.

"Neither of us knew how to sail the boat when we purchased it," Fine said.

Neither planned to retire to devote their full attention to maintaining this vessel.

"I got a $20 book on marine electrical and rewired the whole boat myself," Vidar said.

But the owners of the Scallywag each quit their jobs, each built a business that allowed them to work remotely and each adjusted to a home that creaked and leaned and bobbed about with the changing tides and weather.

"You come back and you just want to chill out," Fine said. "Sometimes it's a little rocky."

The spot in the marina cost Victoria and Jon $350 a month through the colder months, freeing up some money to allow them to experience even more of New York and justify taking a car service every time they needed groceries.

"Zipcar, Uber, Lyft, like any good New York couple," Fine said.

On Friday, the Scallywag leaves New York Harbor for good. Jon and Victoria plan to sail from New York to the Carribean through the Panama Canal and back to Los Angeles (where they're from and where they bought the boat before trucking it to New York), working remotely full-time for the entire voyage.

"All of our clients know," Vidar said. "They think it's great."

"You have to wrap your boat in winter so the condensation and the cold doesn't damage the boat itself," Fine said.

After a winter in a plastic bubble, Jon and Victoria are now ready to relocate to warmer climates, sailing south then west aboard their 1974 Islander, with 50 gallons of water, two days worth of battery power and a dog named Honey stowed away onboard -- behind them they leave some advice for the cash-strapped New Yorker now considering a floating apartment.

"If you kind of freak out when you get that car bill at a mechanic for $1,000," Vidar said, "picture that happening every three months for three times that."