thank you for an honest, realistic comment @litguru. Living aboard a sailboat full time is a lot easier if there's a fat budget to both upgrade all hardware (AC, TVs, watermaker, and all electric winches etc) and get someone to do the maintenance. However I would not have peace knowing that I don't know how something was fixed or how it works, so I rather plunge in with all the doubts and fears, take the risk of breaking or misalligning something, make mistakes, but eventually be in control and fully informed.