Rainbow Warrior II in Helsinki…

…interested many during its 2009 visit.

Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior became immortal and a strong childhood memory for me in 1985 when the French intelligence sunk the original in Auckland, New Zealand while it was protesting against nuclear testing in the Pacific. A Portuguese Greenpeace photographer died. Unfortunately cowardly terrorist attacks still belong to the toolbox of several “civilized” governments.

Although I couldn’t see myself joining Greenpeace, the world is a better place when Rainbow Warrior is keeping an eye on those who are not interested in attention. And the eye just got more vigilant after the launch of Rainbow Warrior III. It was probably the time for a new flagship since the walls of II had old stickers like “Abolish Apartheid.”

Finland’s Southern Coast…

…is one big archipelago thanks to the last ice age. See all the islands around Helsinki on the computer screen of Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior.

You can see a similar view at aprs.fi that shows positions of ships on Google Maps. Navigate along the coast to west and it gets a lot wilder. Hitting a rock with your boat is very easy on this coast if you don’t follow the instructions.

I wonder when Google will do something about the Helsinki street names in their map. Now some streets have Swedish names, some Finnish and some have both. Must be very confusing for you foreigners.

Rainbow Warrior in Helsinki

Greenpeace's flagship Rainbow Warrior is visiting Finland for the first time.

The original Rainbow Warrior was sunk by the French intelligence service in 1985 at Auckland, New Zealand while the ship was demonstrating against nuclear tests in French Polynesia. A portugese photographer died in the bombing.

This is one of the news from my youth that I still remember very well. The young boy I was then couldn’t understand how a country that is supposed to be civilized can do a terrorist attack.

On Sunday Greenpeace was giving tours in the ship and they are here campaining for rainforests and against the use of palm oil as fuel.