[JohnS]

Welcome aboard. This is a great place to learn about trawlers and cruising on them.
For us, there were two areas of research we did. First was about ourselves, and how we lived, camped, and what we thought we wanted in a boat. Second was internet reseatch into possible boats, narrowing our lists of must have, should have, and would be nice to have, and matching those lists to boat makes, models, and sizes.
Yacht world is a good site, though as is mostly broker listings, the boats there tend to be on the higher $ side.
Boats.com and boattrader.com may have FSBOs and lower priced boats, and can be good as comparisons also.
Beware the "just needs a little work to be good again" boats. The work needed may exceed the value Of the repaired boat.
Do a lot of reading at this point, and take any boating classes available in your area. Books like Chapman's Piloting and Seamanship are good general resources, while Nigel Calder's Boatowners Mechanical And Electrical Manual will be a good way to learn about the more common boat systems.
Cruising under Power, and the several accounts of cruising the great loop can give you an idea of what to expect, but the sea, as always, will bring the unexpected.
Know yourselves, plan well, and even if you have to start smaller, just start.
Good luck, JohnS