Saturday 20th May 2017
We arrived in a cloudy morning to the island: Kimmo, Eevakaisa and the “first-timer on Märket” Timo. The wind was harsh, so we had to land by rubber boat. We shared a cup of coffee and a slice of blackberry pie with the last week’s crew, and off they went. Our week on Märket had begun.
Monday 22th May
We have had problems with internet, so we couldn’t get access to this diary yesterday. Today was a special day: we got our first visitor here on Märket. He was Philipp from Thüningen, Germany, and he paddled here from Swedish Understen lighthouse at half past nine. We told him about the history of the place and climbed with him up to the lantern. After it we enjoyed a nice cup of tea, an then he headed his cayack to Signilskär and further to Eckerö.
After Philipp’s visit Timo and Kimmo continued the never-ending work with our enormous pile of wood, and Eevakaisa took all the mattresses and pillows out to fresh air, so the dusts of the wintertime were all swept away. After all we got a lovely and calm evening. There’s practically no wind at all, the sauna has been warmed and soon we can admire once more a beautiful sunset. So nice to be here!
Wednesday 24th May
Today we are blessed with a calm, warm weather, which feels nice after yesterday’s winds. Usually when you’re on Märket, you lose the sense of time and space around Tuesday (volunteers stay here Sat-Sat), and it happened again yesterday. Suddenly you just can’t remember what day is it, or how long have you been here. Maybe it’s only good for modern, tightly scheduled people to sway loose for a while!
Today we continue our timber project, although new problem has risen: there’s so much wood here that it’s hard to find a proper and safe place for the piles. The place should be such that the autumn storms, which sometimes flood all over the island, won’t take our wood to the sea. Now it seems as every proper place would already be used. But we’re working on it, we’ll find some place for them!
Thursday 25th May
We have lots of work here, but work isn’t everything in life. Kimmo and Timo have also been birdwatching and here’s a long list about their matches: Common Gull, Black-Backed Gull, Wren, Dunnock, Redstart, Common Eider, House Martin, Greylag Goose, Tailed Eagle, Cormorant, Oystercatcher, Black Guillemot, Little Ringed Plover, Arctic Tern, Goosander, Red-Breasted Merganser, Temmick’s Stint.
And the same list in Finnish: Kalalokki, selkälokki, peukaloinen, rautiainen, leppälintu, haahka, räystäspääsky, merihanhi, merikotka, merimetso, meriharakka, riskilä, pikkutylli, lapintiira, isokoskelo, tukkakoskelo, lapinsirri.
Here a Red-breasted Merganser (tukkakoskelo) -couple is on its morning swim.
Little Ringed Plover (pikkutylli) has a brief break from hatching.
Maybe the eggs will survive for a while on their own…
Friday 26th May
Late on Thursday evening we got exciting guests: a boat full of shipwreck divers from Turku landed their boat Tavi near Märket’s strand. Early on Friday morning they headed by their rubber boat to steamboat Hesperius’ wreck. Hesperius was a British boat loaded with timber, and it faced its last day on a stormy night in April 1884. All the men were rescued. – In the afternoon the divers came to visit us. We had a very interesting chat with them about shipwreck diving.
In this pic the divers are heading to the wreck.
Friday was our last evening on Märket. Warming the sauna is a “must” when leaving Märket, so we enjoyed the warm bath and a beautiful scenery from the sauna’s window once again.
Saturday 27th May
Bye bye, Märket! “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day!”
Landing to the Northern side was too difficult, so Mats took his boat to the eastern spot of the island. We had a long way to carry our things to the boat but on the other hand, we could walk straight to Mats’ boat and didn’t need to take our rubber boat out.
Timo in his woollen pullover looks like he’d totally belog to the sea life and islands.
And so we said goodbye to Märket lighthouse once again.