140810 Wedding Day
Today a new group of lighthouse keepers boarded the Märket Island. The weather was remarkably good the whole day. In the morning Peter Lindström took the new crew together with five tourists to the Island. The tourists got a tour and shopped for Märket T-shirts. Four of the visitors came from Minnesota, USA and Åland and one traveller Mike was from the U.K.. The last weeks crews Sanna took the visitors around the Lighthouse before leaving Märket.
In the late morning two paddlers boarded the island. They came from Sweden and were on their way to Åland. They stopped only for lunch and a swim.
The childrensbook´s, “Majakat Ohoi!”, main characters Mona and Ville (seal and seagull) visited also Märket in the afternoon.
Some history was made in Märket today. A couple got married here. The wife to be arrived with a group of paddlers in the evening. The group were part of the wedding guests and rest of the party arrived with Sjöströms boat to take part in the wedding. The paddlers will stay for the night in tents. The wedding party had a good luck with the weather as the sun has been shining all day brightly, only some thundersounds from the mainland were heard in the morning. Today the wind has also been very mild and the forecasts predict quite heavy wind for tomorrow.
Today some wood was chopped by Risto who worked for several hours. Otherwise we have been mainly settling in and got to learn the habits of the living here on this secluded island. Like swimming in the lagoon, which was wonderful.
Tuomas and Milla from the last weeks crew left in the evening with the wedding party and Alex stayed with us for a few more days.
Greetings from Märket,
Eva, Lea, Alex, Risto, Anne, Jessica and the “Lighthouse dog” Okko
150810 Windy Day
Today is totally different weather compared to yesterday. The wind has been blowing starting from around 6.30 and the wind has been up to 16m/s. All of us took pictures of the waves hitting the rocks and flowing through the island in small streams.
Jessica woke up early just to give the paddlers a tour in the lighthouse before their departure from Märket. Only some of them had time to take a quick look around before they left around eight in the morning. It was already blowing heavily then. After paddling for a few hundred meters they turned back to the island. It was blowing too hard. So they were all able to enjoy an extended tour around the lighthouse. The paddlers were from Sweden, Finland and Denmark, and they stayed for the whole day. As the wind did not seem to calm down at all they called for Mats to pick them up with a rescue boat in the evening.
Today has been a busy day with work. The kitchen got a thorough cleaning and inventory. Wood has been chopped and the work on the wall has restarted. Some old concrete and stones were put on the top of the wall and then casted with fresh concrete. But we had to stop our efforts since all cement is now finished again. 12 bags of cement were only enough for 1.5 meters of wall length. The wind was really heavy giving extra spice to working up on the wall. Our paddling friends also helped us here. PLEASE SEND US MORE CEMENT!!!
Our very capable lighthouse dog Okko has instructed our work well and also controlled that we all carry out our jobs. He was also checking the weather every now and then just to make sure that the wind did not get too heavy. He was also admiring the beautiful and hypnotic waves.
For the evening we enjoy pizza, cinnamon buns and a little bit of peace and quiet and of course beautiful cenery.
Greetings from Märket,
Eva, Lea, Alexei, Risto, Anne, Jessica and the “Lighthouse dog” Okko
160810 No Visitors But a Swimming Monster
No visitors today, so our “shopkeeper” had some time to take a break from the heavy work.
Today the wind has blown much like yesterday but from slightly different direction. The only exception has been the sun, which was shining all day brightly. Because of the wind all work tend to be a little more challenging than normally. For example doing the dishes in the wind makes the bubbles and water fly into washer´s face … so today Eva got the facial treatment.
More wood was chopped again… it seems that chopping wood is a never ending job (but we´re really close to the end). Risto has been our “chief chopper”. The toilet compost container was emptied today by Anne, Risto and Eva. They have definitely been the workers of the day. Unfortunately, because of the wind and high waves, we can´t warm up our sauna. That´s the experience we are waiting for eagerly.
Northern wall of the magazin got some more plaster on, until it´s finished too… So PLEASE SEND US MORE PLASTER!
Instead of our usual friend Mr. Frog we met today this swimming monster, Dytiscus. We´re quite frightened, really!
Greetings from Märket,
Eva, Lea, Alexei, Risto, Anne, Jessica and the “shopkeeper” Okko
170810 The Russian Delegation and a Baby Seal
No visitors today either. Actually we were waiting for the important visit in the first half of the day, the one by the Russian delegation that came to commemorate the sailors who lost their lives in January 1940 when a Soviet submarine sunk in the very proximity of Märket. The exact location of this submarine was only discovered in July 2009, and the last years crew in fact remember some diver activity close to Märket. Around 12 o´clock a big coastguard boat “Uisko” came to the point of tragedy and an official ceremony was held onboard. But unfortunately due to the rather bad weather and the presence of elder persons in delegation, veterans of WWII, Russians decided against setting their feet on Märket rock. We were all very disappointed!
We were not alone in the morning waiting for the boat. A baby seal stayed the whole morning on the southern tip of our island. And as soon as “Uisko” made a half circle around Märket and headed back, the seal jumped into the sea.
It´s been raining since lunch time, so we´re concentrated on the work inside the lighthouse. Anne was cleaning the kitchen door from the old paint, and Risto was adjusting the big wooden box to make it fit to a part of the turbine base, which unfortunately, needs to be sent back to Germany. This will, of course, delay the moment when Märket will be producing its own electricity from the wind (pity, as here we´re in the windiest place of Finland!).
The tank of the waterheater started leaking this morning. We´ve made a thorough analysis of the hole and diagnosed it as unreparable. Due to heavy northern wind and the fact that sun doesn´t shine anymore, the washing after a hard day´s work is not inviting as the water is cold. Alexei suggests to wash ourselves in the sea as he´s been doing the whole time here… but PLEASE SEND US A NEW WATERHEATER!
And… uhmm, yes, we´re done with wood chopping!!!
Greetings from Märket,
Eva, Lea, Alexei, Risto, Anne, Jessica and the “lighthouse dog” Okko
180810 Rainy Day
Anne and Eva tried to sleep outside last nigth. They woke up in rain at about one o´clock. And today it has been raining the whole day. Washing the dishes gets even more challenging.
We have been mostly stuck inside and done inside work as Anne has continued working with the door. Eva took the downstairs stormwindow under work. She is taking away the rusted paint. Otherwise we have been writing postcards back home. We have a small library here too. Most of the books are in swedish, but we found a few written in finnish too. One is by Enid Blyton, Five Go to Demons´s Rocks. (suom. viisikko vanhassa majakassa)
We started to warm the tentsauna in the afternoon. This has been a bit challenging as the direction of the wind is changing from south to north and get heavier by the minute. We will tell you tomorrow if we succeeded.
One tourist with a motorboat gave us just the action we needed for todays diary. Jussi called and asked if the weather seems ok for him to come and visit us. We said that from the southern side it might be ok for us to pick him up with a rowing boat. And so he came and we picked him up. And of course the nature showed its force again as the wind seemed to get heavier and heavier all the time. So the visit was quick. We gave him a tour around the lighthouse and he did some shopping in our souvenirshop. We served him some coffee too and cookies. He had with him some cookies and candy for us. It was a pitty he could not stay for a longer time, as he has been planning to visit the lighthouse before and always had bad luck with the weather. Welcome again!
Our crew got diminished with one person as Alexei got a ride back to Åland to Käringsund with Jussi. Alexei has been worrying about the weather, it changes a lot and quickly. Tomorrows weather does not seem so good at the moment. We hope that the amateurs can come tomorrow, but Alexei needs to get back as he has been here now for 1,5 weeks.
Greetings from Märket,
Eva, Lea, Risto, Anne, Jessica and the “lighthouse dog” Okko
190810 Big Waves
This morning we woke up to welcome the radioamateurs as they were supposed to arrive early. We noticed that one of the construction scaffoldings was not where it had been by the wall, but far away on the western coast of the islet. We of course wanted to save it and dragged it back but to the other side of the wall. Also the islet seems to have grown smaller in the night. There is water all over Swedens side of the island. And our best swimming place, the lagoon, has grown quite a bit during the night. It was very good that we warmed the sauna last evening as the stove had gone into pieces by big waves coming from the north. The stones are now scattered around the islet. We rescued most of the other materials. During the rescue process one big wave came and took a log and Anne almost went with it. The result is that we don´t have a tent sauna anymore. The sauna experience last nigth was interesting and short because of the heavy wind blowing straight inside the sauna. At least we got to try it.
Yes, the amateurs came… and left. The waves were too big also on the southern side of the island. After last evenings experiences we did not even dream of rowing the small boat to the buoy to fetch the amateurs and all their equipment. We have been following the situation and changes in the weather all the time to let them know when to try landing again. Maybe they will try again later this evening or tomorrow morning. We hope to get them ashore soon, but for now we are truly stranded here as no one can come or leave the islet at the moment. It seems that it was a really good thing that Alexei left last evening.
Otherwise the sun has been shining brightly all day and thus we have been working mostly outside cleaning the place up. Anne still continued working with the kitchen door and Eva with the downstairs stormwindow. The kitchen door was carried outside to the terrace so that most of the dust would be blown by the wind and so that Anne could also enjoy the beautiful day outside.
Today we also got to grill the food, but could not unfortunately enjoy the dinner outside. Now we only have a big thunderstorm and the night outside to experience. Maybe we have to come again at least to experiece the storm as it does not seem to happen during our stay here this time.
It is not possible to land on Märket from the sea, but it is possible from the air. One bird visited us inside the lighthouse as it flew straight to the second floor and into the souvenir shop. We kindly picked it up and took it back outside. It seemed that it had a specific reason to come as it did not want to leave from Ristos hand. Finally it flew away. None of us are ornithologist and could not identify the bird even though we have books here for that purpose.
Greetings from Märket,
Eva, Lea, Risto, Anne, Jessica and the “lighthouse dog” Okko
200810 Sleeping Under Stars
Last night Anne and Eva decided to give the sleeping outside beneath the stars a new try. Jessica joined them as the weather seemed to stay clear for the whole night. And yes, they slept trough the whole night this time. We recommend everyone to try this once in a lifetime.
In the morning we waited for the radioamateurs again… the weather was like yesterday evening. On the southern coast the waves were still quite heavy and so the landing was still impossible as the waves on the northern side were as huge as yesterday. The amateurs decided during the day that they will put up a station somewhere else in Åland as it takes time to construct the antennas and other stuff. This was a pitty. We had prepared buns and food for them and were hoping to learn more about the radiohobby. We hope they have a good contest this weekend anyway.
We followed the waves development and as they were getting smaller we tried to row to the buoys. It was possible but not so easy. At least the possible passenger and gear would have gotten wet. Our test rowers were prepared for this with light clothing and swimmingsuits.
Work was carried on as earlier this week. The weather has been sunny and we got two paddlers from Åland who had visited Märket last week too. They sunbathed and dried their clothes on the rocks and continued their trip after that. Also a ladybug visited us in the sun.
When we arrived the weather was so good and favourable. Now we understand that it was quite exceptional as the weather is so unpredictable and the sea even more so. But that is the thing that makes this a special place and a place worth experiencing. We all are happy to have been here and it is hard to believe that tomorrow we should be on our way back home. Even Okko has learned to move around the island like a true lighthousedog. The new crew is coming tomorrow and with them should also be at least a new waterheater and cement to put on top of the wall.
Last evenings greetings from Märket,
Eva, Lea, Risto, Anne, Jessica and the “lighthouse dog” Okko
