6.7. – 12.7.2013: Jake, Heikki, Krista, Matti, Marcus, Outi, Sirpa

 

Saturday 06.07.2013

 

From early morning Lauri, Pasi and Pera mounted the logs to the sauna. Luckily today was windy because it was sunny and quite warm.

All this was made today.

Belgian radioamateurs left yesterday, one day earlier than planned, and here is the reason why. This is the same place where Sefyr was moored yesterday.

The change of the crew turned out to be ”normal”. This meant that the elements, in this case the wind, decided that a morning rotation was way too early! A brisk northernly wind meant that we, the new team, had to wait on the main island all the way until the late afternoon, before we got on the way to Märket. While waiting we pretended to be normal tourists and aquainted ourselves (among other things) to the maritime museum and a local brewery.

The wind had died down by our departure, but the swell was still quite high. So high, that we had to use the rubberboat to get to the island. The outcome was, that in spite of our effort to the countrary, some of our foodstuffs got some extra seasoning = a good seawater bath. We are sure this will only add to the flavour of the food this week.

Our late arrival also meant that we are going to have a very late dinner. I can already smell the chicken sauce, so no more for today. Bon apetite.

 

Sunday 7.9.2013

 

One of us was lucky this morning. By chance he was awake at just the right moment and saw a beautiful sunrise. First those shades of red in the horizon and the the sudden appearance of the sun. A great way to start the day especially when one can quickly hop back into bed to continue dreaming.

But inspite of it being Sunday, we got to work right after breakfast. Among the tasks of the day was chopping wood and storing it away, continuing the construction of the sauna and guiding our first visitors for this week.

And just as we were starting to get into speed, we had to take a short break just to admire a very traditional sailboat passing the island. This is the kind of boat that was used in this area for hundreds of years and seeing one today was quite a thrill.

Chopping wood can be a dreary task but then again it does not have to be. Our team decided, that it is possible to turn it into fun by interrupting work from time to time and dancing in a circle for a while. It does help!

The construction of the sauna also made progress. At the end of the day only ten logs remained on the ground waiting for their turn. It really feels good when you can see the result of a day’s work. In addition to the fatigue and sore muscles, that is.

We also got our first visitors of the week. A couple from Turku arrived and dared the swell to tie up and visit the island.

Afte their tour and a nice chat over hot coffee, Jenni and Tuomas decides to go for a swim. They swam almost all around the island and this inspite of some wind and still quite a bit of swell from yesterday.

A nice day with a clear sky and sun to help us with our work.

 

Monday 08.07.2013

 

Before telling you about today, a brief story about last night…

Sirpa and Outi decided (in a romantic moment?) to sleep outside under the stars, watch both sunset and sunrise, and generaly enjoy Märket at it’s best. They chose their ”bedroom” with care: north of the stone wall and so towards both sunset and sunrise and protected from the light southern wind. A perfect choise at the time.

According to them, all went well until about 0330 when they woke up to a strange feeling. They mattresses were turning into flying carpets with them on top. The wind had turned to the north and it had also picked up speed. The spray from the waves hitting the shore was almost reaching them, when they decided to get back inside as fast as possible. No quiet sunrise today.

And by six the waves were already pounding hard on the shore and the water was creating rivers and rapids over the island. Only 15 m/s, but still quite impressive.

Today we had to think for a while on whether or not even to try to continue work at the sauna construction site. We were worried about the wind and how we would be able to get things done. Luckily the wind started to calm down and also this work could continue. Still, half of us were tasked to chores inside the building: removing paint from a wall and adding some to boards for the interior.

The sauna project is becoming more and more difficult as the logs have to be lifted higher and higher. At the end of the day we were well above our heads and very grateful to the previous teams for the scaffolding they had put up. Not ready yet, but progress made again. Maybe tomorrow we will get the last logs into place. Maybe…

The original aspect of this lighthouse is very important to us. This is why we are ready to use time and effort in bringing it out. Today Sirpa worked meticolously for two hours removing two layers of paint from the staircase wall just to bring out the original colour. Two hours and what is the result? Maybe an area of one A4 sheet of paper restored and this much residue:

And to make things look right, we also have to paint objects in their original colours. Outi and Krista took some baseboards (just like the original one’s) and painted them with an old light greyblue colour with a whitish stripe used during the twenties.

We are not quite sure where they are going, but as we are building a sauna we did try one out there. We think the shade is just right for a sauna way out at sea.

By the end of the day the wind had died down quite a bit and so the evening was very nice. We had a great dinner and are now looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

 

Tuesday 09.07.2013

 

A moment of concentration to set the mind and body into a good Märket mode is a great way to start the day. Or so claim our ladies, who had a short yoga-session before they started their tasks for the day.

So in a sound state of mind they joined the guys in getting the sauna built. The guys were happy to get reinforcements as the logs seem to get heavier as the wall grows higher and the stakes used to connect the logs to eachother appear to become tighter at the same time.

And here are Outi, Krista and Sirpa at work attaching the logs

By the end of the day all the logs were in place. Time to think things through and continue tomorrow.

Life on this island involves a whole lot more than just renovation and construction work. As the conditions are somewhat basic, there are quite a bit of oldfashioned chores to be taken care of on a daily or regular basis. Just washing the dishes already means heating up the water, carrying the dishes out down a flight of stairs and of course the actual washing up.

One of our two bio-wc’s was also emptied. What a great invention. Turns our ”natural products” into good quality compost in a matter of weeks.

Our lunch today is worth mentioning. It was ”leftoverday”, but this did not have a very inviting ring to it so it was turned into a ”Captains Table” buffet lunch. Everything was so good, that a Michelin star just may be on it’s way. One never knows… Would we get even more volunteers with one star in the kitchen in addition to the millions in the sky.

It took some guessing to find out what name corresponded to what dish, but this made lunch even more fun.

Sirpa continued removing paint from the staircase wall. A meticulouse job which requires ”infinite” patience. Little by little the wall is returning to its’ original colour.

The wind was from the south and not more than about 10 m/s, so we thought we might get some visitors. A few boats did pass the island to have a look at the lighthouse, but they did not try to land. We would have loved to share the island with them.

We humans tend to fall into familiar paturns in our everyday life. So when Krista was asked to take a few pegs from a new package, I was not expecting this outcome. The band around the pegs was tight and so instead of getting the neccessary tools to open the metal band, Krista found a much more innovative way to solve the problem. I think I have played this game as a kid.

 

Wednesday 10.07.2013

 

What a grey and chilly morning. A northenly wind and a steady fog like drizzle that slowly creeped through your clothes added to the chill factor, and so it was clear that construction of the sauna must be interrupted for the time being.

The list of work to be done luckily has enough indoor work to keep us occupied. Among other things the wallpapering of the radio amateur room was started. Once again something new to all of us: a grey wallpaper that was commonly used in the mid nineteenth century. No paper on the wall today, but the preparations are well under way. One large cavity in the wall was revealed when wall papers were removed, but it was quickly repaired.

After lunch the sky cleared and even if it was quite windy and chilly, we continued work on the sauna. Until dinner (also spending some moments of pondering and planning, five phonecalls and a few emails…) we managed to get the first of the supports for the roof fixed into place.

Even though there is a strong tradition in Finland to celebrate the fact that a building has risen to the final height (harjannostajaiset), we did not consider this phase to be enough to hold an official celebration. Maybe tomorrow?

We also continued chopping firewood. It was an ”all hands on deck” operation – everyone who felt up to it could pick up the axe and chip in.

By the way, the Märket fashion week is about to open. The catwalk is ready for our models to appear in the hottest fashion on the island.

We managed to take a peek at some of the models trying out their outfits. We hope to see more tomorrow…

 

Thursday 11.07.2013

 

First the most important thing = the weather. Sunny with a north wind of about 10 m/s and a temperature of around 15 degrees celsius. A good day for working as it is not too hot and we were not expecting visitors due to the waves.

The guys continued with the sauna project and at around four in the afternoon all the supports for the roof were in place. A good feeling of accomplishment for all concerned! We are tempted to keep pushing the project forward, but a short break for the rest of the day from this task was unanimously accepted.

The wallpaper test in the radio amateur room also stepped into the next phase and the first test sheets are now in place. The oldtime technic took some doing, but it worked. It means first applying wallpaper paste on the wall and letting it dry, then some more on the wallside of the actual wallpaper, which is then glued to the wall and finally one more layer of paste on the outer side of the wallpaper. Not very quick, but the outcome is truely traditional.

The fashionweek is now officially opened and we are seeing a constant flow of stylish work and outdoors wear on the runway. Here are two one examples:

As the wind was suitable, we also burned all the trash that can safely be burned. The rock around the building did look a lot nicer after all the little bits of wood from the woodchopping work were swept away. An ecological way to dispose of waste.

And to end this report for the day, a picture of myself writing this diary. Not my fault – the rest of the crew insisted!

Thanks to the whole crew for their ideas, pictures and comments

 

Friday 12.7.2013

 

A sunny day with relatively weak northernly winds. After beakfast it was almost warm enough to wear just shorts and a t-shirt, but the wind picked up just sufficiently to make long sleeves a must.

After a good nights sleep we were up to tackling the sauna project again, except for Marcus who worked with the electrical installations today. Our aim was to get the plywood roof into place and for any remotely professional construction team this would have been a piece of cake. For us it took an hour of thinking it through to get twenty minutes of productive work done.

After all the work we had put into getting the logs and supports for the roof into place, what was the first thing we did today? We started cutting off pieces of both the logs and the supports. I have to admit, that this felt a bit strange, but there were reasons for doing this. First of all, because the ends of the logs would have been way too long and the ends off the supports were at an odd angle compared to the horizon. Not an easy task, but we got that fixed before lunch!

Then it was time to put the first plywood sheets into place. Once again a series of long ponderings, discussions and measurments and then the same thing again, before we managed to dig up the courage to actually cut the sheets into their end size. For a moment we thought we had done the first sheet ”once and for all” and them reality crept up on us and we took it off to be able to cut out a small piece of the support. Well, by the end of the day we (thought we) knew what we were doing and may fix one or two more sheets in the morning before leaving.

During the construction of the sauna, a wire supporting an mast on top of the magasine building had been in the way more than a few times. After contacting the authority who owns the mast we got permsission to take tha cable away. Less risk of hurting your head. Good news!

As it was our last (planned) day on the island and the sun was shining, we had lunch outdoors. Inspite of the sun, it made sense to put on warm clothes. But the potatoes were washed at the shore.

After lunch our girls decided to make use of the moment of relative calm and sun and took a break.

And they claimed also to have been working!

Possibly due to the lack of high end press, the buzz of the fashion week seems to be slowing to a halt. We manged to get a preview of next years ”active office wear” though.

Transporting foodstuff to the island consumes time, energy and fuel. This is why last year one of our current team planted edible plants in the cracks in the rock. And to his and our surprise, the plants had held on to their small crack in the rock all through winter and are now ready to eat. For the time being, we have not started to harvest yet.

Just as we were about to have dinner, we saw two paddlers and promptly went out to guide them ashore. They turned out to be two swedish men who had paddled from Understen. Lucky for them, the wind had died down during the day and the conditions were good for paddling. Strange though, that we have had no other visitors today as the weather would have permitted landing even on the north side. Marcus and Andreas put up their tent near the south harbour and retired for a well deserved sleep.

Tomorrow morning should be a busy one. Getting the place ready for the next crew, packing our own stuff and starting to mentally re-adjust to the presence of ”normal people”. Not an easy task after such a great week. We all feel that we really must get back here again. What a great week!

With best regards

Jake, Heikki, Krista, Matti, Marcus, Outi and Sirpa