240710 Chance with waves

 

Hello Märket, your new crew arrived early in the morning!

A day before the departure we got information from Märket that our depature will be earlier than planned. The weather forecast for today was windy weather 11 m/s, in blasts even 16 m/s. We had to drive from Viking Line ferry directly to Eckerö, where our transport to Märket started already at 6 am.

Our journey to Märket started in a beautiful sunshine and calm weather, but as soon as we reached open sea the wind started to blow heavily. On the deck we had to hold our baggages and food-bags that they did not fall over board. It took about one hour to get to Märket, twice the time normally needed.

The most sheltered side of the cliff was the southern harbour. Our boat had to leave us quite far from the cliff and we were picked up by a small motor-boat several times. We had no chance to meet the former crew because of the very quickly changing of the crews. They managed to get to Mariehamn safely and had enjoyed pizzas they had dreamed of several days.

Because of our early start, We could not buy our food near Eckerö. Luckily Lorenz was able to buy all our food in Mariehamn already on Friday. After arriving to Märket, we first enjoyed the breakfast and then decided where to sleep. Three girls (Teija, Kaija-Riitta and Liisa) took the attic-room with the beautiful sea view.

The boys (Jake, Jari, Lorenz and Vesa) sleep in a big bedroom. Sanna, Tommi and Vieno-dog decided to sleep in a outbuilding with good ventilation.

During the delicious lunch (pea soup) we saw one seal swimming near the southern harbour. After the lunch Jake guided us around and explained the status of the preparations. We were ofcourse very eager to start the preparations by ourselves and that was what we actually did. After a short info how to make plastering, we started to seal the holes of the wall with the plastering. Lorenz built the floor.

In the afternoon we took short rest to recover from the few hours sleep we had last night. While grilling salmon, we also saw another seal swimming. No visitors today and propably not tomorrow either, because we too are now really stucked here on the cliff because of the wind – but that is just what we want!

Now we are listening together sea-weather from a radio in the kitchen while drinking tea. The weather forecast NE wind 14 m/s for tommorow. Temperature is now at 7 pm + 17 oC and the wind NE 13 m/s, a little bit rain. Now we will hear also nice violin-music, while Lorenz has his violin ( from the year 1814!!!) with him. Good that we did not know that when we throwed ourluggages from the boat to the cliff. “Vem kan segla med utan vind…”

Jari, Jake, Lorenz, Kaija-Riitta, Vesa, Teija, Liisa, Tommi, Sanna, Vieno-the dog.

 

250710 From a foggy morning to a sunny day

 

From a foggy morning to a sunny day

This morning we woke up in the noise of wind and waves. During the night it had rained. Far in the sea there was fog and the sky was totally gray (+ 15 oC).We all slept well our first night in this old lighthouse, but there were heard some interesting voices. Slowly foodsteps were wandering in the staircase. These steps might belong to some restless soul. In the past so many ships have suffered shipwreck in these dangerous waters. Especially now in this kind of windy weather you really understand the power of the sea when you look at the waves crashing to the cliff. The sea is respectable and really the boss number one here.

This kind of weather is good for preparing the wall. Humidity prevents the plaster to dry too fast and we workers also stay fresh and lively! Luckily We prepare the wall in the calm side. Today we got a new boss, who watched our work very intensively and from a right direction, downwards to us hard workers. But she was quite easy to handle. When someone said the code-word “food”, she totally forgot her new responsibility to watch us.

Liisa and Teija made delicious vegetable-soup (potatoes, carrot, beans, garlic, tofu, onion) for lunch. During the lunch we were wondering how could we take advantage of the Swedish part of the cliff. Then Jari found out that we could build there a stall and sell snuff. It is not allowed to sell snuff in Finland, but in Sweden it is allowed. We would sell snuff in our own boxes. There would be a picture of an old, bearded lighthouse-keeper and the text “Lighthouse society recommends”. By this way we would get a lot of more tourists.

Kaija-Riitta and Vesa were so eager to try our tent-sauna, that they already played it by sitting in the sauna-bench under the open sky. Vieno-the dog- of course attended to this play. Well, we went bathing while waiting the sauna dream to come true… Actually not a bad substitute!

In the afternoon, the clouds slowly started to wade out and suddenly the sky turned totally blue. We had first time our coffee-break in the nice terrace outside.

In the terrace a swallow has a nest with at least tree young birds.

Kaija-Riitta baked us rolls. We used first time the gas-oven and it took a little bit time to learn how to adjust the temperature. When she was waiting for the rolls to mature, she was looking from the window to the sea hoping that some visitors would come -but in this wind it would be impossible. Now we would have fresh warm rolls to offer.

Later in the afternoon the wind calmed down a little, so the weather eventually turned out to be sunny and hot. During working day people had a chance to go swimming in the lagoon for the first time. Oh, how it was refreshing! We gained extra boost from the lagoon sports, so afterwards we were able to work extremely efficiently; progressed with the plastering of the wall and chopped and sawed big piles of wood.

Kaija-Riitta, Vesa, Teija, Jari, Jake, Tommi, Lorenz, Liisa, Sanna and Vieno-the dog.

 

260710 Working like a dog

 

Last evening we had a beautiful moonlight. The lighthouse looked quite mysterious in that light, but also very cosy having light in the windows and inside people drinking warm evening tea, chatting and of course listening to our evening´s highlight: Lorenz´s violinmusic. Later in the night some restless soul wandered here again. The hatch to the tower of the lighthouse was mysteriously open although it had been closed earlier in the evening… He/she has definitely something important to communicate with us. What will happen next night-that you might read here tomorrow.

Last evening we also saw a small motorboat in the south-east direction, but it was probably a fisherman and unfortunately did not come closer. However, it caused a common alarm among us new lighthouse-keepers: Could we get first visitors?! Though we have spent here now only two nights, it feels that you have already been here much more longer time. This is totally different world and here you really get rid of your normal routines.

Time is also going by in a different way than in the city. You feel that you eat all the time. In the kitchen wall we have had nice art cheering us for several years. A german schoolclass have painted and sent them to us. We have covered the kitchen wall with them. Greetings to Germany!

Today has been an efficient working day. We have progressed again with the plastering of the wall. There are in places big holes between the old wall-stones, where the old plaster has been taking away. To these holes we put small stones and plaster. The wall protects the lighthouse against the waves caused by northern wind. The wind has been today only about 4 m/s and the temperature 19 oC. Nice weather for lighthouse-keepers.

Lorenz has been working now tree days in the first floor of the lighthouse. He´s preparing the floor for heating-pipes. This room will be in the future a kitchen. As you see from the picture, the windows of the northern side of the lighthouse are specially designed against the storms.

Jari has started to build a safety railing to our stairs. These 3.20 meters high stairs are the entrance to the lighthouse. These stairs we climb here up and down several times per day – good excercise and now more safe.

We also carried a big pile of wood from one place to another to have them sawed. Vieno-the dog-also attended to this project eagerly and was sometimes nearly to become a fillet. Jari gave her a nickname ”fillet” after that.

In the evening we went swimming after work. Teija and Sanna had hydrobic-excercise in the lagoon. From that you might find pictures later this week -so stay in this channel.

 

270710 Visitors and fishing

 

Today our official watch-keeper suddenly alarmed: “Lighthouse Märket, alert, alert!” Yes, we had our first visitors of this week – es war wirklich schön! Two paddlers from Germany arrived with one canoe. They had paddled from Sweden and will continue via Åland to Turku. We gave them a guided tour and they enjoyed coffee and biscuits in our terrace. At the same time it was possible to see one seal laying on the rock in the western side of the cliff.

In the afternoon a rib-boat with two finnish visitors came from Eckerö. They told that they were members of the lighthouse-society. Our third visitors today were another two paddlers from Sweden, who rested for a while on the cliff and continued then their paddling-trip.

In addition to guiding the visitors we have of course continued different construction works. Jari has done a huge job by sawing a big pile of wood to smaller pieces that we can then chop to firewood. We have here by the way beautiful old tiled stoves nearly in every room. They all function well and need only outer surface construction.

Lorenz and Tommi removed from the coming dinigroom all old boards of the floor, which will be changed to new ones. We were excitingly waiting if there will be found some ancient treasure or cache of money of some old lighthouse-keeper, but unfortunately nothing has yet found. But we still live in hope and probably not inform possible finding here in the internet…

Vesa and Tommi checked the harbour fenders for the boats after these windy days. On the cliff there are lagoon, northern harbour and a harbour called Leka where visitors can come with their boats depending on the wind-direction. Paddlers can come to the southern harbour.

Lorenz and Tommi as strong and muscular men removed all big stones under water, which were in our boatlane and which we always had to watch out when driving to the southern bay.

Because of the wind we have had no possibility to go fishing -until today! Lorenz and Teija put two fishing nets to water. Tommi was sitting all evening on the cliff fishing. The seal was laying on the rock in front of him probably his stomach full of fish, because he was looking like: “How can it be so difficult”. Today we had to eat frozen coalfish as a dinner and we women put some spell to get some fish. Let see if it helped. We actually had a bet here how many fish do we have in nets. The result of this bet you can read here tomorrow!

Being here isolated in this cliff changes people. We women are little by little starting to look and also behave like a real lighthouse-keepers. As you see from the picture we have started a bad bad habbit: pipe smoking.

 

280710 Bet and math

 

Last evening Tommi and Lorenz went to pick up the nets from the sea. We all waited on the kitchen window and tried to estimate from the weight of the boat the amount of the possible catch. We all bet how may fish we would get:

Jari: 5 big fish

Lorenz: 2 fish heads

Vesa: 7 fish

Liisa: 7 fish

Sanna: 2 fish

Kaija-Riitta: 6 small fish

Teija: 0 fish

Jake: 0 fish

Tommi was fishing by himself and was thus disqualified to attend this official raffle. Vieno was our official supervisor with a food reward. And now we inform you our long waited catch: one flat-fish! We had mercy on it and released it back to the sea. Nobody won the big-prize (emptying our bio-toilet)and it will still be here waiting for the lucky winner in our next bidding. Late in the evening the seals seemed to have some meeting on the rocks in the western side of the cliff. We could fall asleep listening their singing, which was an experience first time to hear.

Jari, our construction chief, left us today being here now one and a half week.

Liisa, now the only vegetarian, was a little bit afraid to stay here with us blood-thirsty meat-eaters. Although we have now enough food here, you never know when when the wind rises and we will be isolated here extra days. Then we might be hungry…

Today has been a busy day especially for our official watchkeeper Teija and our swedish-talking guide Lorenz, because we had lots of visitors. The weather has been very calm today and even the windmills on the roof stopped to rotate. It was an easy weather for the visitors to come here. In the morning we got eight visitors as a group. In the afternoon two visitors from Åland drove here with a motorboat and two sailors from Sweden with a red sailingboat. Lorenz gave them all a guiding-tour and played violin to the visitors during their coffee-break.

Lorenz and Tommi did a huge job by removing old insulations under the floor from the coming diningroom. The plastering of the wall was also continued-there are still many meters work to do. We´ll have to order special plaster for the top of the wall. For that we had to calculate the area of the top of the wall. As a very organized working team we of course had a meeting who should do the calculations. Our decision was that Kaija-Riitta and Liisa needed most the training in math. Luckily we have here a real math-teacher Vesa. He wrote in paper the instructions and the formulas of the calculations. The girls succesfully passed the difficult math-task (85 square meters) combined with challenging conditions and the teacher was of course very proud of his students.

Kaija-Riitta, Vesa, Liisa, Teija, Jake, Lorenz, Tommi, Sanna and “Kekkonen” (Vieno-the dog)

 

290710 Waves & whales

 

Last evening We played poker. Nobody lost remarkable amount of money or did have to undress totally naked. Lorenz played us beutiful violinmusic with his 1814 violin. We had a chance to hear for example Ramona, Kankaan kaunis Katriina, Uralin pihlaja, Päivänsäde ja menninkäinen, Yesterday and folk dance music from Åland. It was very windy and dark outside when we finally went out to wash teeth. Far in the east there was thunderstorm and the sky was flashing beautifully.

Lorenz and Tommi got two flat-fish with a net. Here is the recipe: Märkets flundra

– fiska 2 flundror

– hålla dem i en bäck en dag

– koka i Ålandshavs vatten

– lök, peppar och salt

– koka max 10 minuter

– ätes med gaffel och kniv

– lyssna på stormen och vågornas brus

Today it has rained at times and we have worked mainly inside. In the morning we were all plastering the wall before the rain started. Tommi and Lorenz have been working downstairs making the floor to the coming diningroom. Now all the insulations, which were mainly moss and sand, has been taking away. We others have a doubt that the men did find something interesting under the floor because of their mysterious expression. We will find it out sooner or later. By the way, note the old, beautiful wallpaper.

Today we were interviewed by phone to a newspaper. Teija had an honour to tell about our living here. We were asked for example what attracts women to come a place like this. Well, of course harsh seafarers and love for the sea. And those both we can experience here every day. We really can recommend everyone to experience this remarkable place.

We have also cleaned windows today. This lighthouse has beautiful original arch-windows and of course from every window there is a sea view to all points of the compass. We had many small and not so small spider-friends following our work. Lorenz, our official fly-killer, has even his own spider to feed with flies.

Today the weather has changed totally from a beautiful sunshine to a thunderstorm. Later in the afternoon the thunderstorm went beside the cliff and the wind raised suddenly. Now the wind is constantly 15 m/s from southeast, in gusts much more. Our waterbuckets and dishes were flying all over the cliff and we all after them. No losses this time. Vieno, the dog, also nearly found out how to fly. The waves were beautiful and something intresting besides the flying dog was also seen near the cliff – a whale?

 

300710 Last night -or not

 

After a swetty workday it´s wonderful to swim here. There is a place called lagoon, which is partly connected to the sea, but like a small pond. It´s ground is soft like a carpet and its depth is about 0.3 – 2 meters. You can lie there like in bath or then swim more actively like hydrobic, which has been our favorite sport here. And the seawater may never has been so warm as it is this summer.

We women are amazed how this kind of sea-life affects to your body and soul. We are nearly all the time outside and due to that sleep like babies. The saltwater makes the skin to glow and we also eat quite healty food here. We have made basic homefood like vegetable-soup, mushroom-soup, lot´s of potatoes, minced meat-sauce, salad, chicken, home-made bread and fresh flat-fish from Ålandsea. We have here a gas stove, -oven and -grill. For food storage we have a gas fridge and -freezer. It´s not so easy to go to pick up chocklate or candy from the nearest stall when it feels like it. And television -you really can live without that. From the radio we have listened a couple of times sea-forecast. So if you want to see healty, sporty and natural beautiful women (and of course also men) its worth to visit Märket (although we don´t guarantee our mental healthness).

Today we almost succeeded to finnish the plastering of the wall. We have two scaffoldings, where we stood in turn. Part of the work are now standing, because the plaster and the insulation material have run out. We have to move on to other works. Teija and Liisa emptied our bio-toilet and bio-waste.

People from all over the world are following our internet-pages. Some of our visitors send us e-mail afterwards and that is very nice! Today we got an e-mail from Germany. Manfred Lutz and his son Andreas visited Märket one year ago and they sent us pictures from their visit. Thank you and hopefully we´ll see you again. We still wait e-mails from you to our address: market.lighthouse a majakkaseura.fi.

Today it has been a sunny day, but the wind has been heavy (15 m/s) from south. We had no chance to get visitors here. This is supposed to be our last night in this cliff, but we are excitingly following the wind-strenght. If it doesn´t calm down until tomorrow, we have no chance to leave this cliff tomorrow. Greetings to our employers! We all may not manage to come in time to work after holiday, but that would not be the first time for some of us…

Now we are queuing to wash us in turn in Lilla-Märket. Maybe Lorenz will play us his own composed violin-composition. Good night from here candle-light!

Thank you for reading! Tomorrow next team will (or will not…) continue

Märket-crew

 

310710 Märket blues

 

This is unfortunately our last day here, except for Teija who is staying here still next week. Our feelings are as blue as the weather. The wind is from southwest 9 m/s, so the northern harbour is calm enough for the boat to bring the next team and pick us up. We got one visitor from Rauma this morning and it was easy for him to land to the calm side of the cliff.

Now it´s time to share here some highlights of this week.

One of our projects was carrying a big pile of wood and chop them as fire wood. Our main project was plastering the breakwater, and our part of the task was accomplished succesfully. All Märkets plaster reserves were used during this week. The next group should continue with casting the top of the wall – in case the weather allows the transportation of plaster here! Lorenz has been working hard with the floor downstairs, and the floor is now at a point where the materials provided at the moment allow.

And last we want to say goodbye to one of our friends, who has been lying on the rock near the cliff and whose singing we were able to listen. If the weather calms down, next team will certainly see him and his friends here again.

Sanna, Tommi, Vesa, Kaija-Riitta, Teija, Jake, Liisa, Lorenz, Vieno -the dog