MJ: When and how did you come to live on a boat?

Mrs. Salle: In 2002 my husband was studying advanced physics and needed to learn in a few locations in Finland. We started with the idea of living on a boat because we couldn't find a house that was affordable and near a shul. We bought an old river boat that had been built in 1915 and sailed it from our native Holland through the Netherlands Poland Karingrad Russia Latvia Lithuania Estonia until we reached Helsinki Finland; a journey of five weeks.

We spent our first year docked in a harbor in Helsinki on the Gulf of Finland and the rest of the time on a little island off of Helsinki called Suomenlinna. There were four of us:  my husband myself nine-year-old Channah and six-month-old Eli though the boat could take up to ten people. The boat was 18 meters long. Since it was over 15 meters my husband had to pass a special international test in order to receive a license to sail it. The back part of the boat was our living quarters and the front part of the boat which was once used as a loading area for cargo became our living room. It had five rooms — a little study room a living room a small bathroom and three bedrooms — although bedroom is not quite the right word since they were only 1.20 meters high (3.28 feet). The study room was just high enough for me to stand in but my husband who is tall could only stand up in one spot in the living room and one spot in the study. If you look at the photo of my husband helping with the dishes you'll see he is sitting near the sink — that's because he couldn’t stand up there!

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