Port in Finland
The Western Harbour (Swedish: Västerhamn) is one of two harbours in the port of Mariehamn, the regional capital of Åland, in the Archipelago Sea part of the Baltic.[4]
Passenger traffic and duty-free sales
Most cruiseferry routes between southern mainland Finland and Sweden, as well as between Estonia and Sweden, call at Mariehamn.[5] This is largely due to Åland being outside of the EU customs regime, which allows vessels calling at an Åland port to sell duty-free goods.[6][7][8]
With an average of 15 daily ferry sailings,[9] and approximately 20 international cruise ships visiting Mariehamn each year,[4] the Western Harbour is the third-busiest international passenger port in Finland with c. 1.25 million annual passenger arrivals (2.5m total passenger movements) in 2018.[3]
Navigation
The shipping lane into the Western Harbour has a maximum depth of 9.2 metres (30 ft) and a minimum navigable width of 200 metres (660 ft).[2]
The harbour remains ice-free most winters, or is only covered by thin ice.[2]
Attractions
The museum ship Pommern, a four-masted iron-hulled sailing ship built in 1903, is moored in the Western Harbour as an exhibit of the Åland Maritime Museum.[10]
Mariehamn's other harbour, the Eastern Harbour (Swedish: Österhamn, Finnish: Itäsatama), is mainly used for smaller leisure boats and yachts, and is one of the largest leisure marinas in the Nordic region.[11]
