23-May-2002 -- On our way to Saint Petersburg today we entered the Gulf of Finland. Exactly South of Finland's capital, Helsinki, there is 60°N/25°E.

The Southern Coast of Finland consists of thousands of scattered islets, small bays and shoals. The radar picture helps to get a clear idea of it. For those not being used to work with a radar every day it might probably look confusing, but it isn't. Everything is perfectly easy.

The closest structure to the confluence, about 7 km SW, is the Helsinki offshore lighthouse, which is depicted as a drawing in the navigational chart as well.

From Helsinki itself unfortunately we could not see much.

Today we take the opportunity to introduce our cook from the Philippines, Santiago. He has the most thankless job on board: Never a day off, never an appreciative word, the crew is devouring thoughtlessly his good food. He even saves us a calender: e.g. when there is meatballs then it's Monday noon, Cordon bleu means Wednesday evening, fried chicken is Thursday noon, and here he is preparing his famous beef roulades - and this means without any doubt: it's Friday evening.