140508 Seals and heavy work

 

We, the new two men crew, arrived at Märket one day later than planned because of the rough weather out on the sea. But today weather was sunny and really beautiful in the morning.

With us came also a cameraman and a reporter from Finnish Broadcast Company (YLE). On the way to the lighthouse they wanted to film some seals. And of course we saw hundreds of them, lucky them and lucky us. Seals are cute! Let’s hope that we’ll see more seals at Märket. After we arrived at Märket, TV people interviewed us and filmed the lighthouse and what we’re doing here. It will be broadcasted on YLE TV1’s 8.30 PM news in next Tuesday, or maybe later, not sure. So check it out then! We think that you can watch those news from internet after it’s been on tv.

 

After the TV crew and the shift that was here before us left, a new boat was coming towards our island. It carried plenty of things needed in the lighthouse renovering. It took several hours to bring those things from the southern harbour (or like Antti called it, Katajanokka) to the lighthouse.

 

The skipper of the boat, Mr. Humell from Åland, is also a wonderful engineer, because he managed to figure out what was wrong with our smaller aggregate (the little power station). The first thing he checked was gasoline tank, and found out that it was full of WATER. Our own little power station doesn’t like to eat water. So the problem was solved and soon was the engine running beautifully.

In afternoon we got a little bit of rain and Northwestern wind. So we had to eat inside. Now we’ve settled down and tomorrow we can start our real work here.

Jarmo & Pasi

 

150508 A Circle in the sky

 

Cold but sunny morning here at Märket. North-West wind was rising before noon and settled down in the evening. It wasn’t very warm in shadows but in sunshine it was quite warm. There were couple of seals passing the reef at noon, but they didn’t want to come and say hi to us.

 

After breakfast we started to do same real work here. We started with cutting some old pipes from the wall in the first floor and ripped of some wood from the wall aswell. Then we started to scratch old paint from the roofs in first floor. We used a hot air blower so that the paint would come of easily. And so it did! But it was quite hard and you can’t work a long period at the time, because your hands get very tired of reaching out so high.

 

In evening we grilled some some chicken and the gas grill worked very well. Sun was still shining, so we ate outside. It was nice. After diner we put fire in kitchen’s fireplace, but the smoke came out from other rooms. Maybe the reason was the wind from North, because yesterday there wasn’t any smoke inside.

 

Now the weather is cloudy and it looks like that we might get some rain during the night. So, no beautiful sunset today either. Let’s hope that tomorrow sun will go down with clear sky.

Just when we were sending out this message, a seal came to our reef just to hang out with us. Our first visitor today! So greetings from all three of us.

Jarmo & Pasi

 

160508 A new friend from the cellar

 

Today we had cloudy weather until afternoon. Now in evening the sky is clear and it’s quite warm, but wind is rising and the sea is full of ”whiteheads”. Around 4 PM to 4.30 PM there was a heavy fog. Visibility was no more than a quater mile. Jarmo went up to the tower and took some pictures.

Of course we did some work today. In the morning we tried to scratch of the old paint from first floor roofs. But there was too many difficulties, so we couldn’t continue with that. We decided to go downstairs in the basement and clean up all the big piles of junk from sauna. We also sweeped the floor. So now you can even see the beautiful red and white briquet floor.

We were surprised to find a guest in our lighthouse. There was a big frog living in the sauna. Jarmo found it just hanging out behind an old chair. He got little bit scared, because he’s not used to share his house with frog friends. Then Pasi carried the frog out to a wet place. We gave a name to the frog. Now it shall be called Saku the Frog. Now he’s living a nice life outside, behind the lighthouse.

We just found out that Mr. Gehrmann’s class in Mainz, Germany, is reading this diary daily. That’s great!! Special greetings from Märket lighthouse to Mainz.

Jarmo & Pasi

 

170508 Waiting for the storm

 

(we are lacking the report – but here are some nice photos from today!)

 

180508 Storm gave an extra day

 

Today´s weather has been windy but quite clear. In the morning wind from North was about 8m/s and around 3pm it was about 12m/s. Waves washed over the reef. Wind was so strong that few big barrels almost took a little swim in the sea. It was like magic when waves washed the reef and splashes went so high. Power of the nature!! In evening wind calmed down, but waves are still really big. Pasi saw seals who were trying to got on the reef.

There were two birds inside the lighthouse. They were in panic and tried to fly through the glass in third floor windows. Jarmo saved them and now they’re flying free outside. Hope they’re happy!

Now we’re preparing things so tomorrow´s shift change will go smoothly. We just put the red boat back to water etc.

It’s been amazing five days here at Märket. So relaxing and beautiful. Sad that we didn’t have any visitors, but of course the weather conditions wasn’t the best to come. Everybody should come here! Extra week would be nice 😉

Thank you, Märket!

Until next time,

Jarmo & Pasi