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Vaindloo has an area of 6.2 hectares and marks the northernmost point of Estonia, situated sixteen miles north of the Estonian mainland. The uninhibited island gets into the news usually when a Russian plane violates the state border.

Vaindloo is also notable for its functioning lighthouse, it is 150 years old and managed by the Estonian Maritime Administration. In addition to the lighthouse, there is a station of the Estonian Border Guard with a 50 meter-high observation tower and a radar on the island. Since 1994, two border guard officials have guarded the island. Now that technologies have gone through serious revolutions, the decision was made that a professional border guard doesn't have to be hired to maintain a house, make a fire in the oven, provide maintenance to power generators and for sea observations.

"I guess people's nerves are ruined, they want peace," said one of the two new island guards who will guard the island alternately, Vello Küla, commenting upon why such high interest was shown towards the job.

The other island guard, Villu Kirsimägi said that he has visited the island regularly for 20 years and now that he has retired, the competition gave him a reason to return to the island.