Where Should Cruisers Live?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by bergius

There’s not much left, but medieval Helsinki was more north inland of where the city is now.

Well, that's in Vantaa, not not even in Helsinki.


Helsinki (or Helsingfors as the Swedes named it) was founded in the 16th century by the Swedes but remained a village or small town until the Russians made Helsinki the capital of the newly created Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812, and only then Helsinki started to grow into any kind of city. The island fortress of Suomenlinna was built by the Swedes in the 18th century but there are no significant buildings in Helsinki proper older than the 19th century. So the historical center of Helsinki was mostly built in the last half of the 19th century and early 20th century and has a certain Russian architectural character with a lot of pastel stucco neoclassical buildings reminding of St. Petersburg, then a lot of really beautiful Art Nouveau buildings from the very end of the Russian period when Helsinki was really flourishing off the back of the booming Finnish lumber and paper industries.


It's totally different from Tallinn with the large walled and almost completely intact medieval city (one of the wonders of Europe), or Riga, which were both large cities and important members of the Hanseatic League, from medieval times, when Helsinki didn't even exist.


But today Helsinki is really beautiful, with the sea all in and around it, and is a wonderful place to live.

[bergius]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Well, that's in Vantaa, not not even in Helsinki.

It used to be Helsinki way back when. The “rural municipality of Helsinki” was renamed Vantaa later when they didn’t want to be seen as farmers

But agreed, great city to sail from. Just buy the beverages from the “south Helsinki liquor store” (commonly known as Tallinn).

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Most European tax consultants can help you with that. I have a good one in Estonia if you need a reference.


The main things about living as a nomad:


1. Avoid spending more than 182 days in any one country.
2. Avoid falling into some other definition of residency (center of interest, maintaining a home base, etc.).
3. Make health care arrangements of some kind.
4. Keep really good documents.


The nomad life is not for everyone -- most people I guess crave having a home base. In that case choose a place you like and with good taxation considering the type of income you have. Estonia has a flat tax of 20% on earned income and low or no tax on different kinds of dividends and capital gains. The taxes on passive income in Sweden and Finland are not that bad (less than the U.S.) and considering the superb services you get for your taxes in those countries, and the moderate cost of housing (everywhere except Stockholm), also not bad places to live, if you live on passive income.



Housing cost is a great advantage of life in Finland, which has a superb system of city planning and urban land management (different and better than Sweden's). It's pretty hard to spend a million euros on a house or apartment in Helsinki -- almost does not exist. Contrast to, for example, Moscow, where not that long ago you couldn't buy a one room studio for under a million USD in the Central Administrative Okrug, population greater than the entire city of Helsinki. Helsinki does not have the beautiful buildings of Tallinn or Riga, and no medieval town, but has fantastic natural beauty -- the sea is everywhere -- Helsinki is built on a bunch of islands.



Tallinn is even cheaper than Helsinki; the top prices are about €4000/m2 (half of Helsinki). You can buy a gorgeous apartment in the Old Town for a few hundred thousand euros. Taxis are so cheap that you would never dream of owning a car -- taxi from the center to the airport is less than €5. Ride around all day for €20. And Helsinki is two hours away by ferry. Fantastic place to live.


Either city is only a 30 minute flight (or a reasonable drive by car, or a short ferry trip) away from St. Petersburg, for a culture break, with the most intense and best cultural life in Europe excluding only possibly Moscow, and certainly the best museums in the world.


There are a whole lot worse places in the world to live.

oh dear, you may be opening a huge can of worms in my imagination.

the way you describe it all makes me want to head directly to the baltic sea... and to think that i could actually see St Petersburg! (as i had crossed it off my list a while ago)

what really and truly strikes me, in this moment, is how bogged down i've gotten in my thinking

you didn't lose your 'anything is possible' perspective. i can see that! am seeing how i need to find mine again (lost it in the french lockdown perhaps?).

seriously, thanks so much for reminding me!!!




wolfie

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by wolfgal

oh dear, you may be opening a huge can of worms in my imagination.

the way you describe it all makes me want to head directly to the baltic sea... and to think that i could actually see St Petersburg! (as i had crossed it off my list a while ago)

what really and truly strikes me, in this moment, is how bogged down i've gotten in my thinking

you didn't lose your 'anything is possible' perspective. i can see that! am seeing how i need to find mine again (lost it in the french lockdown perhaps?).

seriously, thanks so much for reminding me!!!




wolfie

Crossed off St. Petersburg?? If a person from China or from Mars, say, told me that he or she could come briefly to Europe but only see one city, and so which one? I think I would say St. Petersburg without any hesitation. During White Nights. It's the most intensely interesting place in Europe in my opinion, especially for lovers of music, opera, art.


There is no reason to cross it off. You can now go for a short visit and just to St. Petersburg on an easy online electronic visa. When the pandemic is over you can fly in directly from any major European air transport hub.


You can sail into St. Petersburg but I would suggest it's unlikely to be worth it. The far end of the Gulf of Finland is extremely shallow and you have to sail down and very long and boring channel past Kronstadt. Then when you get there there aren't any decent facilities. Much better to visit St. Pete from Helsinki or Vyborg by train. There is a fantastic high speed train (the "Allegro") from Helsinki to St. P. which only takes 3 1/2 hours.


As to cruising in the Baltic -- even last summer cruising was more or less normal with all the coastal states open to cruisers except Russia. I expect it will be the same this coming summer. I think it's a good destination for 2021. And even without this pandemic, the Baltic is some of the best cruising in the world, and probably the best cruising in Europe.

[zeehag]

ok so i am different i live on board in cruiseville. i have nursee friends who work in ak, az, and have boat in mexico. they are happy. both work, although he is retiring from nursing this year...oh yes and she i s studying for np, psych.
when i lived in cali i worked in la, boat and i lived in sd, and i commuted.. no big deal.
seems if you have the fortitude you can do whatever you wish to do . still.

[Riggerman]

Think locally and you will soon become a marina captain and blog about things you know very little about. Think globally and you will experience new situations almost daily at first, then you will learn to fix almost everything, many times on the cheap. You will learn from locals that have solutions with no equipment's or supply think About Cuba that have been fixing cars with no available parts for the last 70 years. I have sailed for 40 years,5 ocean crossings. now I keep My boat in Guatemala. I sail 6 months a year now going from island to island because I am getting too old for 25 days crossing solo. As for work we have ex-pat here that have specialties, either computer, mechanic, electrical, refrigeration, sail and rigging etc.... even massages. If you never move, you will never learn. Things i would never have learned, put white pepper in the first coat of varnish will take care of any bugs like wood eating ants, moth, termite etc.....in Central America rats prefer salsa to cheese or peanut butter when you set a trap, why because in people here eats salsa all the time and not so much cheese, so that is what attracts rats to garbage can. You will learn so much more the more you travel.

[oceanminifish]

We had the same conundrum. Landlocked in Atlanta and coming up on retirement and wanting to be on salt water, near a central, major sailing hub in the Caribbean ( so I could charter skipper and help deliver boats) and had an international airport. It also needed to be near world class diving (Saba etc.) since one of us is a scuba instructor. Having been raised in Florida, that was ruled out entirely. After saving for a sailboat for 30 years the money ended up going into a fixer-upper villa in St. Maarten an independent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island has MANY world class marinas, all the boat services and chandleries anyone could want. Our place is on Oyster Pond where the marina (Captain Oliver's) is still destroyed from Hurricane Irma (but will be rebuilt someday) so we will have a place to store our boat and keep an eye on it. Or, we can charter boats when we want to sail and explore and dive and save the cost of actual ownership. Moorings/Sunsail, DreamYacht, and many small charter companies are on practically every island in the Caribbean. St. Maarten has everything we wanted in a central Caribbean location with the most diversified and tolerant population and laws we could find. Check it out! It is a sailor's dream!

[Amapola]

We're retired and happy on a canal in SW Florida. We keep our boat on our dock.

[FoxIslander]

...I am currently between boats, but working on that. I'm retired and living in central Mexico. I can literally live like a king on my pension. Great food, kind people and day after day of clear blue sky. I can get to Vallarta, La Paz, or Mazatlan in a cpl hours. Great place to spend hurricane season.

[David Mathis]

You mentioned New York. The metropolitan area and Long Island are very expensive unless you are willing to live in a small apartment far from the water. However, waterfront homes along the upper Hudson River, canal system, Finger Lakes, and Lake Champlain are often affordable compared to those near the salt water areas. It's something to consider if you're willing to cruise south or have the boat hauled and blocked during the winter months.

[billyehh]

I'm a retired snowbird sailor from Toronto. Catamaran is in St. Lucia, I'm in Toronto locked down and looking forward to next winter to get back to the boat. Today was beautiful with lots of sun reflecting on Lake Ontario and even the boardwalk was relatively comfy signalling a coming spring. This was last autumn taken from my condo.

[David Mathis]

Cruising joy is defined by the cruiser. Some cross oceans and others cross lakes; some cruise for years while for others, two weeks away from the marina is enough until next year. If you're happy with the time on your boat, you're winning at the game of life. We all have different cruising plans.

My perfect cruise is a month or two on the boat cruising inland lakes and canals during the summer months then back to teaching which starts when the leaves turn then I'm in class until school ends in April.

Cruise when you can and where you can, whether it's for a weekend or a decade. You may have limitations on cruising but not on your smile. Boats are meant to make you happy, even though it may take a lot of work to realize that happiness.

[jbrasseul]

Do not live anywhere, stay on your boat and change all the time. Discover and sail, that's the answer, imho.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by jbrasseul

Do not live anywhere, stay on your boat and change all the time. Discover and sail, that's the answer, imho.

There's a lot to be said for having only mobile assets and cash liquidity.

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

There's a lot to be said for having only mobile assets and cash liquidity.

hi RaymondR,

you've sailed far and wide and have surely gathered much wisdom from other sailors along the way

would you (and other)s mind listing the benefits of having only mobile assets and cash liquidity?

much appreciatedif you do

wolfgal