THE BALTIC LAP · LEG 4 · STILL TO COME
Kemi → Helsinki: down the Finnish side
From the top of the Bothnian Bay south to Vaasa, back through the Kvarken, then all the way down the Sea of Bothnia, past Åland and east into the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki.
- Vaasa
- Helsinki
Every skipper sails the same boat, ELEONORA, a 30 ft one-design cruiser, in real time in today's real wind. Set her course and sails, close the page: the server sails her on until your next order.
Along the way
The cards that pop up in the race as you sail past — the places, their lights and their history.
Vaasa THE KVARKEN
The Kvarken Archipelago is Finland’s only natural UNESCO World Heritage Site (2006): the land rises some 8 mm a year since the ice sheet left, and new skerries keep appearing.
The Kvarken is the narrowest part of the Gulf of Bothnia, some 80 km across to Umeå; in hard winters it has been crossed on the ice.
Vaasa was founded in 1606 and named after the royal house of Vasa; after the fire of 1852 the city was rebuilt down by the sea. It is bilingual, Finnish and Swedish.
The Replot bridge (1997), 1 045 m, is the longest bridge in Finland.
Helsinki THE SEA FORTRESS CAPITAL
Suomenlinna (Sveaborg), the sea fortress on six islands at the harbour mouth, was begun by Sweden in 1748 — a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.
Helsinki became Finland’s capital in 1812 under Russian rule; the white Lutheran cathedral above Senate Square (1852) is the landmark seen from the sea.
The 1952 Olympic sailing races were held off Harmaja, whose lighthouse and pilot station mark the approach.
Finland’s icebreakers lie at Katajanokka in the city’s harbour through the summer — every port in the country is kept open through the ice.
Märket THE ISLAND WITH A CROOKED BORDER
A tiny rock in the Åland Sea shared by Finland and Sweden.
The Finnish lighthouse built here in 1885 turned out to stand on the Swedish half; in 1985 the border was redrawn as a zig-zag, so that the lighthouse is in Finland and each country keeps the same area.
Utö FINLAND’S OUTER ISLAND
Utö is the southernmost island of Finland lived on all year round, at the outer edge of the Archipelago Sea.
A light was first lit here in 1753; the present lighthouse dates from 1814.
Bengtskär THE TALLEST LIGHTHOUSE IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES
Its tower, finished in 1906 and some 46 m high, is the tallest lighthouse in the Nordic countries.
In July 1941 Soviet troops landed to take the island; the battle left the lighthouse damaged.
Porkkala THE LEASED PENINSULA
From 1944 to 1956 the Soviet Union leased Porkkala as a naval base, within gun range of Helsinki.
Trains between Helsinki and Turku ran through the base with their windows shuttered.
Hanko FINLAND'S SOUTHERN TIP
Hanko is the southernmost town of Finland, a spa town of wooden villas with names; the Russian empire's elite summered here before 1917.
It was leased to the Soviet Union as a base in 1940 and fought over in 1941; the town was returned and rebuilt.
The legs of the lap
- Rīga → Kalmar
- Kalmar → Mariehamn
- Mariehamn → Kemi
- Kemi → Helsinki
- Helsinki → Rīga