According to the final disaster report, the weather was rough, with a wind of , force 7–8 on the Beaufort scale and a significant wave height of compared with the highest measured significant wave height in the Baltic Sea of . Esa Mäkelä, the captain of "Silja Europa" who was appointed on-scene commander for the subsequent rescue effort, described the weather as "normally bad", or like a typical autumn storm in the Baltic Sea. According to modelled satellite data, gusts were in the excess of between to at 1 am that night over the Baltic Sea, although the ship had not yet reached the areas with the heaviest gusts before its sinking. There was some rain and temperatures around . All scheduled passenger ferries were at sea, something not unusual for this weather in the Baltic Sea. The official report says that while the exact speed at the time of the accident is not known, "Estonia" had very regular voyage times, averaging . The chief mate of the Viking Line cruiseferry "Mariella" tracked "Estonia"s speed by radar at approximately before the first signs of distress, while the "Silja Europa"s officers estimated her speed at at midnight.