230809 Feels Like Coming Home

 

Because of the hard wind, we could not arrive yesterday. Thanks for Viivi and Jonas, the old crew, the chicken was delicious. The old crew also cooked coffee for those four padlerers, who were from Holland, the only visitors of the day.

This is the third summer we are here, and the place has gone through a huge facelifting. Awesome. We walked around the islet barefooted and found a bottle. There was no messages inside, what a pitty. A surpise, a big smiling balloon was lying on the rocks. Now we know, where the escaped balloons are landing!

We are writing this report on the new terrace. The sun is shining, waves are crasshing and seals are singing, now its time for an evening swim.

 

240809 Seals And The Compost

 

The first night was little restless. We tried to sleep outside, but the wind was hard and waves were loud. Seals were also singing almost the whole night. And there were many odd voices around the lighthouse. Has the spirit of it been disturbed? Because of that we woke already at 5 a.m. and saw the huge fireball going up from the sea. Awesome!

Oh bother! Both compost and the biotoilet were packed full, oh dear! Not so pleasant job but it had to be done. And we did it!

After that it was time for the second swim of the day. This time we swam to the small rocky near by. And we had audience! One lonely seal was watching us from the lagoon.

In the evening we put the rubberboat back into the sea, installed the motor and after some technical problems we had a funny ride.

Now we must prepare for tomorrow. Hope we will have a busy day.

 

250809 We Met The Legends!

 

We woke up at 6 a.m. to get everything ready for Kristina Brahe´s visit. Already before 7 we saw a white spot in the horizon, it came bigger and bigger. There she was and we were ready to serve our guests. Suddenly the islet was full of people. It was embarrassing.

Almost 70 people were wandering around. Some of them had been on the same cruise last summer. There was rush in the post office when about 60 postgards were sent. Many of the visitors climbed up into to tower and walked the islet from end to end. Some brave ones ventured for a swim in the lagoon. Awesome! The Märket market and the cafeteria were a succes. Thank You our wonderful guests.

Kristina Brahe continued her trip at 11 a.m. after spending 2,5 hours on Märket. Many of the passangers planned to do the same trip next year. Welcome!

When Kristina Brahe had just diasappeared to the horizon, we saw an orange searesque boat approaching high speed. Surprise, there was Kee Eriksson, the legendary lighthouse keeper. How close it was that our visitorgroup didn´t meet the Real Lighthouse Keeper.

Kee Eriksson came with the TV-group SVT 1 from Sweden. They were making an episode of Märket for a TV-serie named Go´kväll. They were working for 3 hours.

We should now be the only ones here. Or…?

The wind is getting stronger. Surprise, surprise we are going to our evening swim.

 

260809 Raindrops!

 

It has been raining the whole day. We had planned to clean the frontyard. Southwest wind blew the rain straight there. So we took care of the inside, cleaned the kitchen and the shop.

But the rain didn´t stop us from swiming in the lagoon. The seawater felt really warm. We also did our daily walk over the rocks and notised that the sydwest is the best hat in these weathers.

Suddenly we heard an odd sound. A helicopter flew over the rocks. What a shame it didn´t land. Because of the wind we haven´t had any guests today.

Now it seems that we might get a sunny evening.

 

270809 Cleaning the Surroundings

 

It was still raining in the early morning. That didn´t matter, because we had slept very tight. The new beds are excellent. They are steady, they don´t creak and they are big enough. Four beds in such a little space! Thank You, who ever has made them!

As usual we spent a while swimming in the lagoon. It is always calm although the waves are roaring in the sea. Someone calls it green lagoon. That´s because there is soft green seaweed on its rocks. Today we found a new place to jump into the water. Awesome!

We cleaned the front yard today. Rain stopped and the sun came out. We walked around with plastic bags and picked up everything that didn`t belong to the nature. After a while our bags were full packed.

In these conditions, on this tiny island, many things become simple and get diffrent meaning. For example listening the radio. At home it is only in the background but here you really listen to it. The most important program of the day is the weather forecast for shipping. And the sound of the waves is our background music. About the food here, it is also simple. Even the oatmeal porridge tastes delicious. And in the evenings candels make such wonderful an atmosphere.

The world may have its ways somewhere out there, behind the sea

The week 35 crew, Nina and Maija

 

280809 Rutines

 

Our mornings are quite similar, breakfast, bringing and heating the water and swiming. Just when we have got used to these rutines, we must leave, what a shame. This maybe our last day here this summer.

Before noon there was a boat near Märket. By binoculars we saw there many divers. Maybe there is some wreck? We expected them to come for a cup of coffee, but they didn´t show up.

It supposed to be hard wind tomorrow. So we moved our boat to a safe place.

The wind is now 10 m/s from southeast. If it gets harder the crewchange can´t be done tomorrow. In any case we prepaided for the change. It is going to happen any way. Two new eager lighthouseceeprs are waiting for the arrival. In Märket you never know!