Sunday 12.7.2015

Fred woke the rest of the crew at 6.45 a.m. because of the possible visitors, but it was a false alarm, the boat just went by.

Then Mats called around 8.00 a.m. and said that he was coming with the new crewmembers and solar panels. The panels weight over 30 kilos each and we were forced to get them into the island by rubber boat because of the waves. Minna left for the week and Päivi, Marcus and Tiina came in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So weightlifting was a very welcome task at least for Veera. Solar panels will be installed later. The panels were approximately a size of a desk each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Päivi, Marcus and Tiina came to the island and felt home right away. Tiina took in the first feelings of Märket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a tour around the island and the lighthouse it was lunchtime. Päivi and Veera were on the kitchen duties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun was shining whole day with a mild wind. Excellent weather for electricity works and other tasks. Tiina and Veera did rest of the screws for the sauna terrace while Marcus worked with the warehouse’s lights. Päivi found a nice formation of seaweeds from one of the seawater ponds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally; Lenni the seagull was still alive. Again sunny Sunday greetings from Märket!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 13.7.2015

The radioamateurs came on Sunday evening at 9 p.m. with Kee Eriksson. They started their work during the evening and on Monday morning the lighthouse was wired. Connections were made to USA, New Zealand and Russia among other countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The solar panel set-up was on its way. Lead by Marcus, Jake and Veera started to prepare the installing of the first over 2 meter-wide panel to the engine room’s south wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First visitors came just right on lunchtime. They were sailing from Enskär and were surprised when they got to visit the lighthouse. Fred took them around; the kids were excited to visit at the tower. Little Aarre didn’t visit the tower though, but he enjoyed the new surroundings with his siblings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second visitors came around 5 pm and Veera took them around with Päivi as her guide student. They were Matti and Viktor from Helsinki. Märket was their halfway stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day was very busy with the solar panels, visitors and other tasks inside and outside the lighthouse. Tiina arranged and cleaned the store while Päivi took care of the food. Mats called and told us to be prepared for a group of seven visitors coming on Tuesday morning and five on Wednesday.

The day ended in sunshine and lots of good laughs.

Tuesday 14.7.2015

The morning was busy from the starting with the guests. There were 9 visitors with Mats. A Finnish group and then a couple and a guy from USA, Colorado. One of the visitors were Kee’s uncle’s grand daughter Ida-Maria and her fiancé from Australia. Ida-Maria has been named after Kee’s granny. It was a very nice reunion because her mother had played on the island and at the lighthouse back in the days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the group there was also couple with a sailboat visiting the island while the first 3 solar panels were installed to the engine room wall. Perhaps we get to take them in use already this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then in the middle of lunch time the buoy was again occupied while three guys from Mariehamn wanted to take a tour around the lighthouse.

The solar panels were nearly except for the last one right under the roof when Ari and Johanna popped in for a visit. The Lighthouse Society’s former construction coordinator came in with his boat while visiting Mariehamn. Fred also fixed temporarily the hatch from the dishwater heater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day was full of sunshine and also a winged visitor from the lands; a crow which had a hard time with the terns. Perhaps it wanted to have a nice meal with the tern eggs or babies, but none of the tryouts succeeded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The busy tourist day and the instalment of the solar panels were then rewarded with a nice sauna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 15.7.2015

The morning started again with a group of visitors. There was a couple from Karlsruhe, Germany and Tiina guided them around for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also three visitors from Föglö; Siv, Josefine and Matias came to visit Märket with Mats while Maria and Kjell left for the week. Leif came to continue radio amateur’s work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The divers who came with their boat in the evening and overnight on the Southern side of the islet got stuck with the rocks. They had to push the boat with a rubberboat to get it free and sailing again.

Then the phone rang and a sailboat came to horizon; S/Y Ráfaga II from Turku came with three visitors to take a tour around the lighthouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scaffolding was partly teared down by Jake and Veera and all 4 solar panels were on the wall; finally. They were also cleaned and Marcus started to do the electricity work.And there was solar power.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day was again full of action and sun decided to shine from the afternoon, which of course made the day. Wednesday lunch was manly food by Jake; the interesting sausage-meat-pasta-casserole was named ”Caveman’s casserole” because of the amount of meat in it. Definitely happy stomachs here! Then Jake and Veera organized the boat shed and inventoried the kettle lids.

After 5.30 pm Mats brought some Lighthouse Society’s visitors to see Märket.

The keeper of the diary ends the report here and goes to enjoy the evening sun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday 16.7.2015

The day started with grey clouds and rain. The heavy dark clouds went away and brought some tiny dusty rain showers. Weather however was exceptionally warm despite the rain. The crew stayed inside doing their tasks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Päivi took care of the dishes and Tiina went to organize the shop. She made new price lists for the products and counted the money. Marcus conquered the engine room; the solar panel system continued producing energy even though it wasn’t sunny. Our consumption of energy has turned into negative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only place were the heat was on, was the engine room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While climbing at the scaffolding on Tuesday Jake took a picture of our lighthouse from a different perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The screws from the scaffolding building process were a bit confusing…. A real engineer work there?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dish water heating stove was still a bit malfunctioning and when it was on, there was a bit smoky atmosphere inside the toilet. The hatch needs to be fixed properly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day was nice and relaxing even though it was rainy and a thunder echoed somewhere from the sea.

Friday 17.7.2015

The evil northern wind started to rage with a force early in the morning. The sea wiped over the Northern harbour and the Southern part was also under the water.

Some monkey climbed up to the windmill and took a picture of the surroundings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fred went out to take a picture of the waves and got a bit wet. He had to run hiding behind the wall, but his sneakers got soaked anyway.

Marcus needed some earth conductors for the new solar panels etc. So Jake, Fred and Veera went with him to clean up the rocks from the scraping and dig some spaces between the rocks in order to get the conductor wire into its place behind the warehouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the hard wind and a bit chilly weather conditions our dishwasher Tiina was at least happy. Päivi cleaned the kitchen and washed the inverted funnel and it shone like a mirror!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wind kept blowing and we are not sure whether we are able to go home on Saturday or not. The waves kept on splashing against the islet’s rocks and wash over the lowest part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The windy, but then in the evening very sunny, day was then rewarded with some grill sausages and sauna.