Mike Mate

Our transit from Sweden to Finland was Heaven sent – a break from four weeks of underwater documentation – numbers on board reduced from 32 to 15 crew. Winds were against us to start and by the time we reached Gotland – on the East coast of Sweden – had died away. We anchored off Gotska Sandon, an island with sandy beaches north of Gotland, for one night – waiting for the right wind, which was forecast. I watched an hour or more of slow green sunset, not a breath of wind, half-a-mile off the beach. That evening, in the mess-room at dinner time, we lingered our conversations in the peace. The next morning it came from the South-West, fresh. We sailed off the anchor and the spinnaker filled with a following breeze. We have reached Finland where a company ‘Neste Oil’ is increasing its production of refined Palm Oil – proclaiming it as sustainable, the renewable solution. Palm Oil comes at the price of old-forest and the price of blue-sky. In preparation to grow palms, farmers burn the peat-land (up to 15 meters deep) and it takes a monsoon to put out the fire – making Indonesia the third largest emitter of CO2 in the world. Thirty-five miles east of Helsinki is the refinery – I could see the chimneys from ten miles away – as Rainbow Warrior steamed closer she was joined by three Navy War Ships (there to protect the interests of government). There was also a coast-guard vessel in the north anchorage of the refinery and many zodiacs with uniforms in the water, and so, unable to reach the anchorage, I anchored directly in front of the refinery. Helsinki Traffic was all right about this, after I had informed them. There is a wonderful traffic management service through the archipelago – and it has been a joy to navigate between the thousands of Finnish islands without pilot. All we have done is hold a press conference, and we have left Rainbow Warrior to cast the spell. It is the first time that this boat has visited Finland.