190610 New Crew

 

May I introduce the new crew: Tuomas, Kaarina, Kari, Jonna, Juha R., Juha P., Henna and our full-time tourist Lotta, who is 10 years old, but already experienced visitor in Märket. Extra member of our group is Remu, the gentle lighthouse watch dog.

The wind had calmed down after early morning’s blowing, so we could start our trip to Märket almost on time. Bengt’s boat was heavy loaded with freight like solar panel, several batteries (70 kg each) and other hi-tech equipments for wind turbine, 10 sacks of concrete and lots of water. Unfortunately we couldn’t bring a mast of the wind turbine, because it wasn’t ready yet.

It was a magical moment to Henna, the only “freshman” of the crew, when Märket suddenly became visible. Nobody saw the islet at all because of the mist until we were only 700 m away from the shore. We were able to come ashore easily and delight rays of sunlight welcomed us to Märket.

The leaving crew had left us some rhubarb soup and home made buns and cinnamon rolls. Thank you!

We decided to work a little bit, although almost everyone were more or less exhausted because of the journey. Tuomas began to electrify the lighthouse successfully after 30 years of darkness: we have already at least one shining light bulb, though it isn’t working with solar power yet.

Juha P began his own project with windows of engine room and Kari made a dry storage for firewood. Kaarina and Jonna took care of barbeque cooking and other household duties.

Henna concentrated more on photographing and her attempts to learn to use communication tools properly. Our junior’s main “task” was playing with Remu. They became friends immediately.

 

200610 Networking

 

It was a first real working day for the new crew and we work out quite many things indeed. Tuomas built an antenna system for better internet connection. Märket has a lap top and USB modem now, which makes diary keeper’s task easier and also makes possible to use higher resolution photos instead of pics taken by mobile phone camera. Märket has a new e-mail address now: market.lighthouse a majakkaseura.fi

Juha R. and Kari began to continue “hard as rock” job: tearing down walls of the wave breaker. Juha P. started to wash glass tiles of the engine room and Jonna helped him. Old glass tiles have become surprisingly fragile because of sea water, so you have to handle them carefully, Juha P. told.

Jonna made delicious oat buns by her own “secret recipe”. Well, the secret in this case is that there is NO recipe. She and Kaarina planned day-to-day menu for next week and thought about one very interesting question: what shall we eat on Sunday? Macaronis and oat meal may be the right answer, unless we don’t get any fresh fish. Kari and Juha R. are trying to resolve the problem now by netting. Let’s see, do they get something else than seaweed as their catch.

The weather changed so many times between misty and sunny during day that Henna got really mixed up, but she also thought that this is really typical here, nothing special.

 

210610 Tourist Season Began

 

Today we had first organized tourist group on this summer season: at 10 AM Yvonne and Mats brought 7 nice ladies who are working at Mariehamn central hospital. Henna made her debut as a tourist guide.

The weather was nice and sunny, although north wind was strong enough to prevent visitors to come ashore at the north harbor, so Kari picked them up from the buoy by rubber boat. Visitors gave a new nickname called “Pettson” to Kari, because his appearance reminded visitors somehow about the famous main character of the Swedish children book “Pettson och Findus” (“Viiru ja Pesonen” in Finnish).

Kari’s and Juha R.’s netting experiment was a success, at least if you compare to our skeptical expectation: 1 flounder, 1 Atlantic cod and 3 scleropareis (simppu in Finnish). Kaarina fried the flounder and the Atlantic cod, so we could have a little sample. Stickery scleropareis were left for birds as a meal.

Team Kari and Juha R. continued tearing down the concrete of wavebreaker. Juha P. finished his task of washing old glass tiles and began to get ready his main job for next days: brick in tiles to windows of engine room.

Internet connection was, again, the big problem that Tuomas had to resolve. It turned out that USB modem and the antenna are not automatically make life easier.

Henna still loses her temper every evening when it’s time to send the diary material and nothing is working. So, she decided to launch a new daily series based on her experiences as a beginner. It’s called “Märket for dummies”. First lesson is: take more time and be patient whatever you are doing, from sending an e-mail to washing yourself in Lilla Märket. It takes double the time you have thought to spend to it.

 

220610 Sunshining and Solar Power

 

Summertime had began in Märket! Today was the first day when we could wear a T-shirt while working outside – well, at least half the day, because wind began to blow quite strongly (approximately 7-8 meters per second) on afternoon. The sky was clear, which indicated also lot of UV-rays, so everyone were looking for their suncreams, sunglasses and caps. And now is time for second lesson of “Märket for dummies”: be careful with the sun! Our beginner Henna already burnt her scalp mildly.

Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to tell you about our surprise visitors yesterday: two Finnish paddlers came from Eckerö on late evening.

Their journey had began from Kustavi one week earlier. Paddlers spent night in a tent near north harbor and Henna introduced the lighthouse and the islet at noon before they continued their trip to Sweden. Paddlers told that they had seen very curious seals who came only few meters away from kayaks. We haven’t seen seals yet, but today morning we heard seals “singing”: it echoed across the calm sea from some islets nearby, at least we thought so, because we didn’t manage to see any animals even the sound was quite clear.

That’s was the lyric part of the day, here comes another side… Kari and Juha R. had literally a dirty job: emptying the biotoilet. Not every guy could do that without vomiting, so maximum respect to them.

Tuomas was playing Spider Man when he installed a solar panel on the roof of engine room – with proper safety equipments of course.

Juha P.’s glass tiles project was also progressing. Others helped him to open tight closed window holes and Jonna washed “old, but new” glass tiles, which will replace those original ones that are broken. Juha R. finished the job with wavebreaker, for a while, and continued tearing down plastering of the store house. Kari painted the borderline that separates Finnish and Swedish territories, first time in his life for certain. Some spots had to leave without new white paint because of the angry terns protecting their small birds.

Kaarina and Jonna made delicious food again, just listen to for example our dinner menu: fish with herbs, mashed sweet potatoes (and “normal” potatoes), cauliflower and broccoli, and apple pie with vanilla dressing for dessert. If some of us had thought they would lose some weight during the shift, they probably had a wrong idea.

With regards,

“The Midsummer Crew”

 

230610 Freight from Mariehamn

 

Last night was quite exhausting for Kaarina, Lotta and Henna: they woke up at least 5 times because of the screaming carbon monoxide alarm. It remains still mystery, was it caused by some kind of dysfunction or was it a real danger. However, any risk could not be taken, so girls had to sleep door opened rest of the night. So, third lesson of _Märket for dummies_ is: be careful with heating stoves.

We had a discussion about birds nesting under the eaves of the engine room at the moment. There is no any amateur ornithologist in our crew, but we were quite certain they are either barn swallows or common house martins. Conclusion was that the latter is the right answer.

Juha P. began to brick in glass tiles windows of engine room with help of Kari. First he made a window from _new_ tiles. _Seem to stick well_, was Juha P.’s impression. Jonna finished her task of washing around 100 glass tiles in all. Kari painted the sun compass.

Kaarina, our main chef, made extra work to offer our lunch and coffee breaks outside like yesterday. It is not so easy to set a table, when you have to carry everything in a basket up and down 3 meters high steep stairs.

The most important thing was the mast of wind turbine. There were also 8 sacks of pulp wool and lots of wall paper. Tuomas measured off carefully behind the store house where would be the right place for the mast. That is very important to know, because Swedish territory is only some meters away. We must avoid repeating mistakes of the past, borderline shape is already so curvy. _The air forces_, that is eminently patriotic Swedish terns gave us already a warning what might happened if we go to foreign territory…

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day, because we will get some unusual visitors. It is a secret why they come here, partly even for us. Hopefully we can give you little bit more information about them tomorrow. So, this thrilling serial story of life in Märket continues on next chapter.

Tuomas, Kari, Kaarina, Juha R., Jonna, Juha P., Henna, our junior Lotta and Remu, the lighthouse watch dog a.k.a the midsummer crew

 

240610 Helsinki-Film Visit

 

Today we got very unusual guests: Bengt brought JP Siili and Aleksi Bardy from Helsinki-Film and their pilot Vesa Varpula to Märket. Yesterday’s mystery of the strange airplane flying around Märket was revealed at the same time: it was the same group looking the islet from bird’s eye view.

The producer Aleksi Bardy told that they are searching ideas and possible filming locations for their future project. JP Siili is going to write a screenplay and also direct the film. Tuomas introduced Märket and the whole group seemed quite excited about the unique character of the place.

Our crew made already some casting schemes. Tuomas insisted that Bardy promised a leading male role to him. The salary was the only thing they didn’t make a agreement yet. Maybe Tuomas had too high Hollywod style demands?

Anyway, we are pretty sure that there will be lot of enthusiastic Finnish Lighthouse Society members who would like to be background actors if the film crew is going to shoot their story in Märket. So we are looking forward to know how the project is progressing.

Oh, by the way, now it’s time to advertise that Tuomas will have his premiere talk show tomorrow: he is going to tell how is Midsummer in Märket on air Radio Suomi broadcasting at 11.40 AM, or some minutes later.

Bengt saved our next days by bringing more water, fuel and gas tanks. There were also two Lottas in Märket for a while, when Humell dropped by again: his boat Lotta was loaded with extension parts of shimney, batteries of wind turbine and scaffoldings.

Our own Lotta is also familiar with water: she has been the most enthusiastic swimmer of the crew so far. Juha R. and Remu have also tried on swimming in the lagoon. Rest of us are waiting for Midsummer Eve.

Today’s challenge was an erection of maypole (majstång in swedish). OK, just kidding: it was actually a three-legged support for wind turbine mast, but it looks little bit like the maypole used at midsummer festivals, at least if you have enough imagination. It took lot of manpower to do it.

Guys tried to do it by themselves at first, but very soon they realised they would need some girlpower, too. A tackle and ropes were also necessary. Henna almost hit with the support while she was hurrying to help others, that’s a great achievement, if you think about how visible such a thing is. Fourth lesson of “Märket for dummies”goes like this: don’t watch your steps only, look around, too.

Today first seal ventured to the islet at afternoon coffee break time. We saw already an individual lying on rocks of one small islet near lagoon yesterday evening. Maybe we’ll get even more company…

the Midsummer Crew

 

250610 Märket on Air

 

Today Märket was on air: Tuomas gave an interview to Radio Suomi broadcasting program called Juhannus-Suomi (Midsummer Finland in english). He told to listeners around the country how we are going to spend Midsummer in Märket and also little bit of what Finnish Lighthouse Society is doing here in overall. Tuomas was on phone in kitchen and rest of us listened the program in the museum room next door. Tuomas did his job well, everyone agreed.

We didn’t forget our main task, although it was Midsummer Eve, so you could hear drilling and other sounds of different kind of tools until evening.

We got also surprise visitors on late morning: three paddlers, Lina, Erik & Per came from Singö, Sweden. The visit was short, they just had a meal break and rested a little bit, and after that they moved on towards Mariehamn.

The weather wasn’t ideal for paddling, because of the south and south-east wind was blowing briskly (around 8-10 m/s on afternoon). We had quite nice conditions for Midsummer fest anyway, because sun was shining – that’s almost luxury if you think about typical Finnish Midsummer weather.

This was the third Midsummer when Lighthouse Society had volunteers in Märket. Of course sauna is part of our tradition, too. Kari, Tuomas and both Juhas built a tent sauna with heat-storage type of stove on rocks between the north harbor and the wavebreaker. Lotta helped by searching stones for sauna stove that Juha P. made.

Henna had come to Märket partly because she wanted to experience different kind of Midsummer than usually. Well, staying here is something special indeed, however we have here everything what needed for perfect Midsummer Eve: sauna, sunshining, possibility to swim and good food, drink & company of course, and even a bonfire. Well, we don’t know yet if the latter is going to catch fire or not, but you can find at least one good thing about heavy blowing wind: there isn’t any annoying mosquitos.

By the way, we would be very delighted if you send us e-mail in english! Address is: http//:market.lighthouse a majakkaseura.fi We will publish some samples of e-mails in our web diary.

Tuomas, Lotta, Kari, Kaarina, Juha R., Jonna, Juha P., Henna and Remu wish Merry Midsummer to all readers!

 

260610 Midsummer Day

 

Yesterday evening, after the web diary was already published, we discovered that our tent sauna was excellent indeed: it gave us surprisingly hot, but still very moist steam. It took hours to heat the stove, but it was worth of all waiting. Men went first to sauna and they told us that the steam was so hot they had to put their heads down after throwing water to stove stones. Women had more gentle experience after men. We have also vihta or vasta, however you like it, to give some smell of birch for perfect sauna experience.

The bonfire was burnt after midnight with little help of fuel. We had a night full of feeling anyway, because the lighthouse was lighted inside with candles and lanterns. You may have noticed that nowadays we have solar powered electricity light system in the lighthouse building, but it cannot beat real flames when it comes to atmosphere.

The only Midsummer tradition we didn’t follow was searching for seven herbs. Guess why it was difficult to do it… Concerning the topic by the way: we have forgotten to tell you that Kaarina brought one oak and one pine plant to Märket. She planted them behind the engine room. It would be nice to observe later do they grow in these harsh conditions.

Today we have another reason to celebrate: Kaarina had a birthday. Unfortunately our main chef had to make her own birthday cake. Well, it was delicious of course, and men wondered how it was possible to bake such a good cake in a gas stove without burning the bottom. Well, the secret is the foil used beneath, Kaarina and Jonna told us. They had noticed that it moderates heat of flames.

Work still continued as usual. People are hurrying up to get their incomplete tasks finished before our shift ends. Time has run really fast. Our junior Lotta insists she’s not bored at all so far – very promising future lighthouse keeper! Remu didn’t tell his opinion, but if you can make any conclusions about his happy tail wagging, then you might say he agree with Lotta.

 

270610 The Last Day of the Midsummer Crew

 

Last night there was a brisk wind blowing around 10 m/second. The result was that the sea wanted to show it’s strength, too. High white waves hit the islet especially at the north harbor and made it impossible place to come ashore. It was amazing how long waves kept on coming and coming even the wind had calmed down hours ago. This was something totally new for Henna. We wondered what would we do if the boat cannot come ashore and we have to stay here extra night. We didn’t have lot of drinking water anymore and also the fridge looked nearly empty, so we kept our thumbs up.

Tuomas and others tested the mast of wind turbine by erecting the first part of it temporarily, so that Tuomas could made some settings They also installed all three parts of the mast together. The whole mast is laying on the ground now waiting more technology and the final installation.

Juha P. and Kari hurried up to get the glass tile project more or less completed. Juha P. layed tiles while Kari made jointing. As a result there is altogether 8 masoned glass tile windows in the engine room and boathouse at the moment.

Now it’s time to make final conclusion of “Märket for dummies”: Märket is not a rest-home for idlers. Being as a volunteer means full-time working, but it is also rewarding in many ways. For example the surrounding nature is great. No wonder why Tuomas calls the place his “landscape office”. So, our newcomer Henna recommends volunteer job in Märket to everybody who is interested of lighthouses and sea life and doesn’t hesitate grap to work.

On evening a new crew came by Bengt’s boat and Tuomas, Kaarina, Kari, Juha R., Juha P., Jonna, Lotta, Henna & Remu had to say goodbye to Märket.