120610 What a Start!

 

Our new crew came early in the morning to Märket. With us came also two gentlemen from Åland, the last real lighthousekeeper Kee Eriksson and Jan Andersson who is writing the history of Märket.

This time we were a little bit confused because of the new place of the departure. On the way a seal was spotted. Angela has strong experience beeing at Märket, where as all the other arriving members of the new crew are firsttimers. The old crew, except Teija and Ari, was ready to leave the island but it was not so easy as it was planned because of the high waves.

It has been stormy all the day but luckily no rain. Despite the weather we already have a new bench in the kitchen. Otherwise we have used the day settling down. Food is as good as always, even though we have new cooks.

Ari, Teija, Angela, Outi, Hannu, Erik, Mats, Pasi, Riina ja Jussi

 

130610 Stormy Day

 

Stormy good morning everybody! Before the omelettebreakfast we had an important work to do. The boys carried all the loose things from the rocks inside the shelter. It was still storming and we were expeckting higher waves to come over the island. And so happened. After the things were taken safely inside we could admire the wonderful play of nature.

Because of the weather we decided to work inside the lighthouse. Outi, Riina and Angela were cleaning the working room to make more space for the tools. Mats and Jussi built a new shelf for the increasing amount of tools. The other boys, Eerik, Pasi and Ari built a supporting costruction so that the wall above the door be safely strenghtene. Hannu knocked the plaster away off the wall and also Teija had a very busy cleaning day. Despite the fact that it really is Sunday, we were very hard-working.

Jussi and Mats admiring the self-made shelf

While we were eating delicious Velouté de courgettes by Outi and Riina – you can only guess what it is – the sun suddenly appeared!

Because we started working inside the lighthouse on the morning, we went out when the sun came. First we took a moment to memorize the beautyful ocean and waves in the sunlight. During the afternoon we completed the work inside and then started to work on the wave braker with a chisel and a hammer.

When we stopped that, we made the concrete filling above the door frame in the first floor. After it was completed we took a moment to our self adoring the waves once more and after that we were called for dinner, wich was absolutely wonderful. You would not imagine eating steake and all the delicious food on an island like this, with basically no luxyries. Some of us are now thinking of trying to go to swim in one of the ponds the storm made in the cliffs, and other than that, we dont know, yet.

Good night!

Ten little lighthousekeepers

 

140610 Hard Work

 

Monday came sooner than we thougt after the hard-working Sunday. It seems that we will finish working little bit earlier today. Our group is working very well together – it is hard to believe that we have known each other only two days.

We are lucky to have three talented, motivated and symphatetic students from Turku University of Tecnology and Sciences with us. Mats, Erik and Pasi had already made several things whitch are useful if not necessary for the daily life at the lighthouse. Now we have a box for the herbes and a new place for the kitchen clothes and we are even expected to have more tables for the terrace to go with the fine one from last week. Mats, our youngest member is very skillful and handy in carpentry.

To add to this day, we finally got fish after waiting for it for several days, Pasi and Erik went fishing and after a while of patient and nervous waiting Erik catched a small cottidae, witch we selebrated joufully.

Hannu has been doing great work with demolishing the wall-surface of the old storage building, and the ladies baked some bun during the day and we all got to enjoy it after that.

And to add to that we also had a visitor, a brave padler came with his canoo trough the waves to see us. All of us were supriced that he spoke German but lucky for us Angela can speak German fluently.

We tell you more later when we have more knowledge. Now the day will continue with the dishes and getting to know the visitor.

The ten little light-house-keepers.

 

150610 The Meatballday

 

The morning started in sunshine. After stormy days was Modersmagen – our swimmingpool at the Swedish side – at last calm enough, so some of us could start the day with morning swim.

After breakfast Hannu,Teija and Jussi continued tearing down the wall, while Pasi and Erik did masonary work downstairs. Hard working demands lots of energy, so Riina and Outi made 159 meatballs for the crew (Teija actually did the counting).

Because of the increasing wind and because of the hospitality (that’s what Simon said) our guest Simon from Germany decided to stay an other day on the island. He comes from the Hannover area but has been living in Uppsala for couple of months. In this season Simon is the first guest arriving in his own vessel. He started couple of days ago from Gräsö, northwest of Märket and paddled first to Understen. He came to Märket because of the boarder line. After staying on Märket he propably will paddle around Åland. You can read more about Simon on http://boatabout.de/.

At lunch we ate every single meatball. Thank you Outi and Riina for the delicious cooking.

On the afternoon it started to rain and it felt a bit cold inside the lighthouse. The boys decided to start a fire in the fireplaces.

The wind from northwest was ideal for heating. While heating the boys still managed to get amazingly lot done: the works have proceeded even faster than planned. Construction noice and laughter even envited a curious seal who came to see what’s going on, from safe distance, though.

 

160610 From Sunrise Until Sunset

 

The day started with a wunderful sunshine. Teija was up already at 4 o’clock in the morning to take some pictures of the rising sun. She noticed soon that she wasn’t the only one who was admiring the brightness and quietness of the early morning.

We had many plans for today. The museum and storage room had to be emptied because of the wall repairing. We packed all things, so that the boys could start the work. Now the museum room has a large hole above the door and dust all over the place. Teija, Outi and Angela have to find an other place to sleep for couple of nights.

Our German guest Simon left us after spending two days at the lighthouse. He will now continue his paddeling around Åland and visit us propably in two weeks on his way home. We wish you Simon a safe journey and hope that we will see you again! We haven’t forgotten the self-made delicious plums you brought to us.

For the first time in this week we could have our coffee break outside. The rocks were very warm and soon almost all the crew lay like a group of seals near to water. Mats wasn’t sleeping. He carved a tiny little bark boat with all trimmings.

Now we are wondering, where you all turists are. Our boat is ready to take you to the island, where you can taste our excellent cinnamon rolls. To complete the day Jussi and Mats will catch us fish for tomorrows soup and enjoy calm and beautiful sunset.

Fisher stories will continue tomorrow. Good night!

 

170610 The Fish Soup Say

 

For the first thing in the morning Jussi and Mats went to check out the net. You can guess what they got: one little SIMPPU (cottidae) again. It seems that we don’t get any soup from frish fish today as we had thought. Luckily had Outi and Riina some SEI (pollachius virens) in the freeze, so despite of the bad fishing luck we had a fish soup for lunch.

Today we continued all our unfinished work. Eerik and Hannu plastered the wall downstairs and Mats and Pasi worked in the museum room. Teija and Jussi demolished the conkrete wall of the magazine.

And now all over the places you can hear some rattle and clatter. Every mashine is in hard use. At the moment this is a very noisy lighthouse!

Fisher boys haven’t given up and formed some small balls of plaster what they can use as a weight for the deap sea fishing.

On the evening we suddenly got some visitors to the island. It turned out that they weren’t ordinary tourists but boarder guards who came to check their gear.

Riina already had made coffee for the coming guests but they left us sooner than we thaught. Now we have an exceptional evening coffee after dinner.

Today we have also noticed the cruel side of nature. We found a dead seal – actually half a seal – lying near water line.

Everybody still here: Mats, Pasi, Eerik, Outi, Ari, Angela, Teija, Riina, Jussi and Hannu

 

180610 Lighthouse Full of Aries

 

Our last working day began windy and we thaught that it would be a rainy and stormy day. We had actually hoped that last day at the lighthouse would be sunny and beautiful and the sun really came later on afternoon.

We continued with some unfinished work but somehow the thaugts were already in tomorrows leaving and we noticed how much we had been working and how exhausted we all are. So we all went to sleep after lunch and for a couple of hours you could only hear the wind and the waves – no noise and not even laughter, that has been heard much here this week.

We have not just been hard-working but also hard-laughing team here. And now after the delicious dinner we secretly hope that the waves would be even higher so that our stay here would last another day. Teija and Angela have already dug out the handkerchief for tomorrows fairwells. Today we noticed a very funny thing: half of our group has aries as horoscope sign. Now we have two football teams here:

We are planning to have a football match on the rocks to celebrate the last evening. We just have a tiny little problem: we don’t have any football here.

Today the shop was full of customers for the first time this week. All the crew members – especially the new ones – bought several cards sent them home.

The complitely demolished lighthouse shop is now reborn by Teija for the second time this season as the construction works destroyed the first version.

Good night!