070810 New day, new shift

 

This has been a very long day and it’s not even over yet. But all that matters is that we are here now. Let me tell you how we got here. First we drow from Helsinki to Turku with Markku where we met Milla and Sanna. Then we took a ferry to Långnäshamn where we arrived at 1 a.m. Then we got few hours of sleep before getting to the store were we picked up food for the coming week. Car filled with food, bags, insulationbales and people we headed to Käringsund harbour. There we met our foreign crew member Aleksei and couple of visitors and started our boat trip to the lighthouse. On the way we stopped to admire the seals. And then in the horizont we saw Märket. Now you know that it’s not easy to get here but it’s worth of all that.

Because it’s saturday, whitch is the usual day for change of the crew, it has been a lot of hustle _eller huller om buller_. There is quite a lot to carry around : water, food, fuel, construction materials and all you can need while living and fixing a lighthouse.

Last year they had bought a sailingboat from Sweden. The boat stayed here over the winter and now they flyed back to see some more of Finland. They’ve all ready seen for example Utö and Isokari lighthouses. Now they continued sailing towards Sweden.

Two of them -Matilda and David- will stay overnight. Maybe the highpoint of the day was when Bengt flyed over us with his yellow aeroplane. And then of course in the evening it was time to warm up the sauna. Also our guests took the opportunity to help us with the sauna.

Maria, Milla, Sanna, Eliisa, Markku, Ari, Tuomas, Risto, Aleksei, Peter, Marcus and our guests Matilda och David

 

080810 Thunder!

 

Bright lightning and thunder woke most of us up in the middle of the night. This lightshow lasted some two hours and Märket cliffs were as if daylight has suddently hit them. Thousands of ”Thorn´s axes” were thrown from the skies to our necks. Good old lighthouse survived the storm as always.

Morning was sunny and after breakfast we started to push forward repairings of the lighthouse. Concrete top was cast to strenghten part of the stormwall for upcoming winter storms by our guest Matilda and David, Alexi and Maria.

Risto and Sanna were hammering the loose top layer of the magazine building wall before new layer of concrete can be cast. Some hardcore wireing was done by Marcus and Peter for the windmill before they left us in the evening. That mill will serve us electricity by the end of August but some parts are still missing and we are waiting for them.

Lunch break with excellent spagetti bolognese gave us new energy to continue repairings. Rain stopped our work in the late afternoon and we could take a break to catch up rest what last night`s storm had prevented. Our restaurator team started to define the colours that could be used in the repainting of interiors. The idea is to use the colour nuances that have been found from the various old paint layers.

We had six visitors from Åland, Turku and Kuopio, and Matilda and David left us.

Some nature observations from this week : baby sparrows are growing to teens and practicing flying skills and are soon ready to leave the nest. Fishing nets Paavo brought to Märket were partly broken as sealsized holes had been cut to them in the sea. One seal was watching as we picked up the empty nets to the boat. Seals 6 points – fishermans 0 points. Last but not least, an unidentified mushroom was found from the compost. This new lifeform is occuring on the rocky cliffs thanks to all lighthouse keepers and visitors !

Eliisa, Maria, Milla, Sanna, Aleksei, Ari, Markku, Risto and Tuomas

 

090810 Missing title again

 

A long day again, but very nice day. Everyday here feels like a whole week. This place has like its own time zone where time runs slower. Don’t get me wrong: that doesn’t mean that it’s boring to be here. Here just happens so much everyday.

Today we plastered one and a half wall of the warehouse and cast concrete to top of the wavebreaker.

Firewood chopping continued and a big pile of them was moved to the warehouse. In the kitchen we had a very good pair of cooks, Risto and Alex to be precise, who made huge piles of food. Today the long waited parts of the windmill came to mainland Finland. Some hopefull minded people think that they may end up here on this week. Realistics say that maybe next week. We will see.

The weather today has been very chancing, like a lighthouse keepers wifes mind. In the morning there was a lot of fog but then the wind blew the moisture away and we had a very lovely weather.

Many of us took the chance and went swimming on the afternoon. We waited the sunset witch we hoped to be beautifull. Sky was covered with clouds so we put an orange mug on the fence as a setting sun.

Eliisa, Maria, Milla, Sanna, Alexei, Ari, Markku, Risto and Tuomas

 

100810 Works just like in Strömsö

 

Morning started with a swimming in the lagoon and a breakfast. Sanna, Milla and Maria were baking cardamom bread for the booked visitors coming from Eckerö.

Four German tourist with two children were interested of the lighthouse´s history and the repairs we are carrying out here. After tour Märket cliffs served well as a picnic place for this family. Three finnish visitors knew well already the place as one of them had been a week here before. Once forgotten screwdriver part was returned to home in Märket and baked sweet buns tasted fine. Our finnish quests are working in media and they were also interested to do some filming on Märket.

Bengt the boatman had brought his eleven years old sausage dog ”mäyräkoira” with him. A sailing boat with finnish flag arrived.

When this finnish couple landed to Märket with a four months old sausage dog we were having a dog kennel in Märket. Dogs were playing and running in the yard like old friends.

Lunchbreak with super-chicken meal was again the best cuisine on this side of the earth. Windmill base was having a new function as Risto put a hammock on it. Island without threes is a challenging place for hammocking! We started a new society of independent hammockers (in finnish ”Riippumattomat riippumattoilijat Ry”). Eliisa left us with the visitors boat after giving goodbyes. In the evening we are warming the sauna on the seaside and hoping again to see the sunset.

Maria, Milla, Sanna, Alexei, Ari, Markku, Risto & Tuomas

 

110810 SEND CEMENT ASAP!!!

 

No visitors today. Just pure hard work. Until all concrete and plaster were finished! We worked all day with the wave breaking wall. Its top will be casted with concrete. Now all the supporting irons are in the right places.

Wood chopping continued as all other days. Wind is still rising which may cause some difficulties with boat transportations.

Safety cameras were brought to the island. And here is the truth:

We also noticed that one of our crew member was actually an US Navy soldier. Or maybe just a maintenance man, who knows.

Risto hand-made an awfully nice Märket spatula. But after that beautiful piece of Risto’s art work got some critic he decided to throw us a challence. We all got own piece of wood and time until the sunset to make something nice and practitical out of these. Winner of this challence would get Risto’s special ”bun with herrig filling” breakfast at tomorrow morning.

Maria, Milla, Sanna, Alexei, Ari, Markku, Risto & Tuomas

 

120810 Second Xmas in Märket

 

Morning was in many ways special as Maria, Milla and Sanna had a breakfast in bed with bubbling refreshments.

Tuomas made this real suprise to the princesses. A vegetarian tomato bun was waiting for Alexei as his seal-shaped spatula won the first prize in our wood cutting competition last night. Some competitors burn their wood block, because they was very afraid about the food-prize.

Various object were made from wood: a fish knock-out club, a base for cups, a mobile phone holder and a king-sized spatula.

During the day we cut and laid the wooden floor to cover underlying heating pipes in the future dining room. Lunch with the italian inspired menu was excellent as always. Sea atmosphere and the work made us hungry! Seals can eat up to 7 kg of fish a day and we can do almost the same amount.

In the afternoon mr. Humell arrived with 1.5 tons of cement and long-waited wind turbine parts.

This was like a Christmas present for us and especially Tuomas was jumping out of joy. Unwrapping the parcels and studying the parts was exciting.

In the evening Ari will show us how to barbeque zucchini and sausages outside. The last one is sometimes called ”finnish national vegetable” or ”the nordic banana”.

Maria, Milla, Sanna, Alexei, Ari, Markku, Risto & Tuomas

 

130810 (Friday 13th) Life is a ship and then you sail away!

 

Sun was shining hot and the wind was quite gentle today. Sides on the top of the wavebreaker wall were completed today and we let them dry overnight. We have to leave casting the top of the wall with concrete for the next group. Ari cooked food and cement, and both were great success as all was gone in a moment.

After working hard we were ask to pose a little bit. With overalls and tools in hand we looked like Village people band members! Photo will be published on Ålands Tidningen magazine.

In the evening it was time to clean up the lighthouse for new crew which will arrive tomorrow. We were also admiring the new postal stamps, that were brought to us yesterday by Mr. Humell.

What a beautiful day for snorkling, thought our seal-member Risto and jumped into the sea after seals couple of times. Seals mate underwater but no luck this time. Sanna had a great fun washing the dishes all day long. Maria was documenting the colours inside the lighthouse and she will make plans and suggestions about the interior colours.

Our first international member, Alexei, who came to Märket all the way from Rome, Italy likes to stay with the next shift (Märket-addict already?). He´s hoping to leave for Åland sometime in the middle of the next week, but all other crew is very sceptical whether he´ll be able to catch any boat since visitors becoming less in this period of year. At worst he says he´ll make a boat out of wood and plastic canisters available in the island and sail to the shore with that.

Since it´s our last night here together, we are going to prepare some crepes and barbequed zucchini and enjoy them with Captain Morgan!

Maria, Milla, Sanna, Alexei, Ari, Markku, Risto & Tuomas