Week 29: Jake,  Katja, Annamari, Heli, Kirsti ja Mikael

 

 

Saturday 12.7.2014

 

Our new crew of six people arrived Märket about 9:30 AM. We had also Satu as our guest star visiting Märket the first time – like four rookies of our renovation team. The weather was nice, warm South-West wind was not blowng the estimated 9 m/s, instead it was about only 4 m/s. From the boat we saw our first seal ahead of us – unfortenately it was dead as a stone. First we almost thought that Mats finds the route to Märket by the smell of these dead seals. We were wrong, it was only a pure co-incidence to be on our very path. We brought with us some new tools and equipment for the roof of the magazine house. Also we had – for a long time – the first birchbuckets for the brand new sauna. After arrival we chanced information with the last week’s crew and had our security trip on the island. We started to work with finishing the firewood for the  sauna.after having a tasty meal (peasoup) Kirsti had cooked for us. The other more sophisticated meal was our dinner consisting of chantarelle sauce with new potatoes following a strawberry-yoghurt dessert. Chantarelle were picked up by Annamari.

 

Sunday 13.7.2014

 

We woke up to the warm but little cloudy day – perfect for working outside. We started with chopping woog logs. Some of them were like hard rubber but we managed to chop them all in to tiny pieces. We also started sorting out the storage house. We also collected some old broken tiles and little pieces of concete, which we found from cliff holes of the island. With the evening rain came also two Oystercatchers. Katja has managed to sell a few Märket T-skirts even without any paying tourist customers.

 

Monday 14.7.2014

 

Mikael and Heli cut off about a dozen of potentially dangerous metal sticks mounted to the cliffs. Jake, Katja and Kirsti continued sorting out the insides of the storage house. There they also built some shelves for goods. Annamari got rid of harmful organic matter from the walls of the lighthouse.

Around 1:00 P.M. arrived our first visitors, the family Mandelin, with two adults and three lovely daughters, the youngest being only 1 years and nine months old. Today the only good place to come ashore was the north side of the island. The name of the boat was Bijou. Annamari and Heli guided the family to the “secrets” of the lighthouse and the island. After lunch Jake made some concrete to fill the holes of the cut iron pole remains and covered some unnecessary marks from the cliff and refined some “pathways” for easier moving for the wheelbarrow. We also chopped some wood that was taken out from the storage house.

 

Tuesday 15.7.2014

 

We woke up to a somewhat hazy and warm weather. After a tasty breakfast we started our daily working routines and also waited for the first visitors of the day to come around half past ten. We emptied the other rain water supply tank, which Heli carefully cleaned up. The two families from Sweden and Åland came just as informed by Mats boat. Annamari and Kirsti guided the families. Kirsti fixed and sorted out the cleaning closet to an excellent condition. Mikael continued the previous group´s work preventing people wetting themselves while carrying the tyres by making holes to two additional tyre. Cleaning up the storage house continued, including moving some more heavy stuff like the stove away. In the afternoon we welcomed a new boat crew from Rauma to the island. Later Heli probably saw a white-tailed eagle, but we could’t comfirm the species. In the evening we happily enjoyed the new wonderful sauna.

 

Wednesday 16.7.2014

 

Wednesday welcomed us by sunny weather with the mild wind blowing about six meters per second. After a good breakfast Annamari, Heli and Kirsti made the maintenance service to the restroom no:1. Kirsti and crew (Annamari and Heli) made a nice rack for the kettle covers. Mikael painted a white stripe to the wooden floor-rails to prevent anyone to stumble to them in the dark. Jake did the maintenance to the compost. We made a little trip to the Märketshällor-island near by. The north harbour of the island might be deep enough even to the Mats’s Sefyr boat. Jake and Katja scratched plaster away from the 3rd floor staircase wall.

 

Thursday 17.7.2014

 

Trough the whole day weather was calm, warm and sunny. Thursday’s very first visitor was a seal accompanied by a gull. After morning routines Kirsti finished the cleaning of rain water barrels. Soon after, Mats brought first thirteen people to enjoy the lighthouse experience. Visitor Jan-Erik had a special reason to come to Märket – his father worked here a short time in the 1950’s, when Jan-Erik was only tvelve years old. Soon after the first group left the island came four additional adventurous visitors for enjoying Märket in an excellent weather. Between several guidings our crew had also time to check up all kinds of metal stuff from the storage house and other places to apart any useful metal from non-exploitable metal for further transport ashore. The hot day ended up with some nice bathing in the two lagoons of the island.

 

Friday 18.7.2014

 

Friday started with somewhat windy and not too warm weather, a perfect day for all sorts of cleaning. But where to start with? Of cource we all eagerly jumped to a thorough cleaning of the bio toilet and washing of the wooden corridore rails. We also did some warehouse inventory, counting bricks and measuring wood stuff and steel wires. Katja continued scratcing off the paint from the lighthouse corridore walls. Our visitors of the day came from Sladdarön, Sweden. After a succesful working day we were all seduced by the nice hot sauna.

Jake, Heli, Kirsti, Katja, Annamari and Mikael