Saturday 26.5.2007
First, report from Diddy (the old shift)
The morning was foggy and the sun promised to come out soon. I couldn´t see the boat until its really close. And then all of a sudden the island is full of people. Funny, that four people can look like a crowd.
I took the new lighthouse keepers on a tour and showed them everything important. We had time for a cup of coffee but then we got a signal from the boatdriver that we had to leave. The swell had increased and getting onbord was not that easy.
I made a stupid thing: I went too far out on the cliff… and slipped on the wet seaweed. In seconds I was taking my first bath of the year. The water wasnt that cold but it was good lesson for everyone. I shoud have known better. One of the boys pulled me up really fast and one of the other got a picture. Well that one is on me… Always be very careful on a wet cliff!
I already miss Märket and I hope the next lighthouse keepers are enjoying themselves as much as I did. I made a promise to go back, and I will.
Diddi and Tossan
The shift has changed on Märket again. For the next week there will be two of us taking good care of the unpolished jewellery of the Baltic, Märket.
Our journey to the lighthouse was pleasant. We took a ferry from Turku to Långnäs. We slept there and from Långnäs we were taken to Eckerö by Henryk Gwardak, a local member of the Society. Our captain mr. Eckerman gave us a boat ride to Märket. Weather was beautiful with hardly any waves.
Approaching the island was just so exciting as we expected. We were gazing over the horizon for a good 20 minutes, only seeing the island on the radar. Suddenly Kristian spotted the lines of the lighthouse through the fog and in no time we saw Diddi wawing us on the shore. Lighthouse was glowing beatifully in the morning sun.
After unloading our gear Diddi took us around the lighthouse and showed us way to go with the daily routines. Things got really exciting when it was time for her to leave the island. She was just grabbing the rail of the boat, when she slipped of the wet rocks and fell into the water. After a quick rescue operations she was back on the rocks screaming out loud. But, as she told us, ”only because of the cold water.” For an experienced sailor like her it surely wasn’t her first time in the sea.
Now there are just two of us on the island. We have been exploring the island and spotting seals and passing ships. Tomorrow we will begin to work with the toilet first and hopefully we will get some visitors here, too.
We have a laptop, but recharging it is a bit of a problem. Today it was sunny and the solarpanels worked well. Unfortunately we can’t recharge the laptop with it.
For the lunch we had pasta in tomato sauce with garlic and herbs and there will be lentil soup for the dinner. We have plenty of foodstuff as you can see. Kristian is staying at the top floor and I’m occupying the room above the wood shed. We will change over in three days time.
It is easy to settle in when everything is in such a good order here. Our special thanks for the previous lighthouse keepers. You have done a great job.
Cheers from the Märket,
Kristian & Markus
(From the webmaster: Today we finally found the direct email system from the great Nokia E61i. Now they can send high quality photos and emails from Märket. ´Lighthouse keepers´dependence on 220 electricity is now over!)
Sunday 27.5.2007 – A surprise from America
First night on the island went well. Kristian was woken up by a intruding guillemot, while I kept sleeping in my storm beaten shelter.
I began the day rowing around the island. Kristian was spotting seals and being attacked by a furious sabine’s gull. Apparently he has something birds dislike. Weather was just perfect with sunshine and no wind.
Mission of the day was to remove the toilet from wood shed to the ’gas chamber’ underneath the ’middle building’. We made detailed drawings bearing in mind three things: functionality, maintenance and high level of manual labour. We cut the timber and nailed the whole lot in roughly six hours. It’s still missing the ladder and stand for toiletries, but the first testruns have already proven it’s superior. It is made for those who aren’t afraid of heights, just like lighthouses are made too.
As the day went on weather turned cooler and more windy. Around six o’clock we got message that we will get visitors from Mariehamn. We finished our work and in no time we could see helicopter approaching. It landed on the rocks and three men, two pilots and our american guest, Don, hopped off the copter.
We guided them around the lighthouse and told wild stories from the past and our stay. We all took loads of photos and Don amused us with his travel experiences. He was on a two and half week tour through Central Asia, Caucasus, Belarus, Russia and now, in Märket. His father was a keen radio amateur and that’s how he had heard about Märket reef.
We had a fantastic 45 minutes we will remember. They left the island just as spectacularly as they had arrived. We have had our first guest and we are looking forward for the next ones.
It’s midnight now and we have strengthening north-easterly wind. Forecast says showers and spells of thunder for the night. No lightnings yet. Kristian took a wash in chilly +8C evening and I’m still waiting for my turn. He told: ’water was warm, but the wind made it a bit extreme. The iron ladders peels the skin off the bare feets’.
It was a day full of work. We were hoping for some female company as it was ’helluntai’, but all we got were those three flying men. But Kristian eased me by saying: ’if there are no company on helluntai, they wil be queing on Juhannus.’ We shall look for that.
That’s all from now.
On the behalf of lighthousecrew #3,
Markus
Monday 28.5.2007 – Big seas, finally
When we yesterday morning woke up in gentle sunlight, today things were different. It was pouring down and waves were barreling over the rocks on the northern shore. We slept in a bit and had a long breakfast drinking the coffee left over from last nigths visit.
Project ’relocate toilet’ wasn’t ready yet, so we got into it as soon as the rain stopped.
We finished the stand next to the seat and did a careful job with the stairs. Despite the few ’miss hits’ we finished it as planned.
The photo is bad, but it gives a bit of a taste of it. There was only one thing we forgot to pay attention on in drawings, and you’ll see it when you come over here. It works perfectly, though.
While we worked with the project the waves got higher. According to radio wave hight was 0,6 meters, but what we saw was something different. We had the boat tied to two bolts in the middle of the island, but already in the afternoon waves reached it. We took the oars up to the lighthouse and checked the ropes. In two hours time the sea got higher and higher and was throwing the boat back and forth. Next time we looked the other rope was off and we decided to pull the boat higher up. I put the shorts on, studded orienteering shoes with neoprene sock and a life jacket and went on to the boat.
Waves were barreling over the boat and water was thigh deep. I couldn’t open the knot, so I cut the rope and we hold the boat at place. Once the sea went back we emptied it and lift it on rocks next to the wave breaker.
And it wasn’t the knot that had let us down, but it was the bolt. It had been ripped off from the cliff.
Waves that hit the shore were at least three meters. Yeah, we got some great photos.
There is no way entering the island right now. Waves are going over the cliff where the copter landed all the time. We haven’t had any sunlight today, but we have battery for two more days. We are keeping the batteries in our sleeping bags at nights and we made a thing with hot water bottle for the day.
We had pasta with tuna fish and garlic for the dinner and a glass of wine. And we have heater here in kitchen, so it’s nice and cosy here. I didn’t have the guts to take a wash last night so tonight I will. Kristian is swearing by the name of forecast as sea is just getting rougher. Waves must come down all the way from Bay of Bothnia.
Still going strong,
Riders of the Storm
Tuesday 29.5.2007 – Thunder, birds and a watch
Every morning is different here. Today we woke up in massive thunderstorm. I slept upstairs too as everything was damp in my own room. We felt a bit uncomfortable at the top of the lighthouse as lightning usually strikes the highest peak around. Lightnings were great eventhough it was bright already. Roof was leaking a lot, especially at the root of the light tower.
We begun with domestic work. Dishwashing and removal of tiny birds inside the lighthouse. They often fly in but can’t find they way. Main business today was to reorganize the wood shed. We couldn’t finish the work as it’s packed with all sorts of junk. And it’s all piled up against the back wall thanks to some really big waves. We found a lot of interesting stuff, old Junghaus watch maybe the most special. and it was still running!!
I did my first running exercise today. Waves made the going bit wet, but otherwise it was just great. It takes about five minutes per loop if you follow the shoreline, that roughly one kilometer. Perhaps there’s a Märket marathon in coming years. They do one in North Pole so why not here?
We have enjoyed a cool and foggy weather today. Radio told that mainland Finland was suffering in sweaty +25C sunshine. Märket scored +7C. No need for t-shirts.
We haven’t seen any seals on rocks for two days now. Well, no wonder, as surely those poor things would be all bruised and beaten up if they would try landing in high waves like we have had here.
For the dinner we had lentil soup in bedouin style with bread croutons. Shimmered for two hours. No restaurant has a view as we have here.
In hope for sunny tomorrow,
the Lords of the Lighthouse
Wednesday 30.5.2007 – A fog from the mist
Yesterday begun with thunder and ended with a one. I was running around the island to get a glimpse of a lightning in my camera. I didn’t succeed with my digital one, but hopefully with the film one. The old SLR Canon is made for lightning hunt with it’s long exposure.
Today the weather has been foggy as usual. No sunshine and peak temperature +7C. We are running low on batteries and wouldn’t mind a sunshine tomorrow or friday. Sea has calmed down – but no seals today either.
The research institute for fisheries and game in Finland was about to conduct a seal count flight today, but after our weather report it was postponed for tomorrow. In stead of seal we encountered a new animal species here today. A fat and ugly frog escaped from the shed, when we were banging the old barrels there. Maybe it’s a salt water one or came with Kristians luggage, we don’t know. There were other animal contacts in the shed, but with dead ones. A mummy bird and a unbroken egg was found at the bottom of the junk pile.
As the weather doesn’t seem to clear out it was time to fix a heating for my room. A beer can stove burns nicely the alcohol that was left over from previous keepers. By the way, all the other bottles are empty but Marinol spirit exists still. Apparently, too bitter even for lighthouse keepers. The stove works nicely and makes the room feel a bit dryer.
We ate the same soup as yesterday and it was still delicious. We are running low on garlic too, that worries us most.
To save our battery and your time, we’ll close for today.
The Men of Märket
(From the webmaster: When Markus ended his report at 11 PM he told he had only + 5 celcius in his room…)
Thursday 31.5.2007 – The seals are back!
Candles are burning as usual at this time of night. We ran out of gas here in kitchen and we’ve been too lazy to carry a replacement canister dowstairs, so it’s pretty humid and cold here. Think about old, run down lighthouse on a windy island with no heating whatsoever. That’s exactly what Märket is like. But the candle light creates a bit of coziness to the night.
We are almost done with the wood shed. We carried everything out at first, we cleaned the floor, fixed the railings above and carried everything back in. It was a two day operation, but you can certainly see the results. Now there’s dry room for lot of things and we will move the gear from the boat room there tomorrow.
Yesterday, after the two thunderstorm we spotted an oil leak behind the middle building. Apparently the old oil tank is leaking some and the rainwater flushes the oil out. Something should be done for it soon as is poses a big risk for wildlife here.
We almost got visitors today. Blokes from the Enskär coastguard came flying over the waves with their boat, but sea was already too rough for landing.
In the afternoon conditions weren’t too bad and it was the first time, since Sunday, when visitors could have entered the island safely. By boat I mean. Don and the helicopter is a different thing.
Taking a wash has been kind of extreme for the whole stay. It’s a situation that you would hope for your worst enemy, when you’re naked outside in the middle of Baltic Sea in chilly +6C wind soaping yourself and you realize, that there´s no cold water and you have to run and bend over the cliff to get some. It’s pretty harsh. But it’s so great that we have the big pot for heating up the water. No one has the guts to go swimming in a weather like this.
We cooked a special Märket stew for tonight with onion, carrots, potatoes, kidney beans, and garlic and all stirred up in spicy mix with coconut milk. Tomorrow we will make pancakes.
The seals are back on the rocks. Kristian spotted more that hundred of them on the western side. That’s good news for research institute for game and fisheries Finland as they are about the fly tomorrow and do seal counting.
Weather report said +7C with Nort-Eastern wind 9m/s. Sea is getting high again and there’s thunder in the air. We are going to have another loud night tonight. Earplugs are needed again.
Hoping for a sunny tomorrow. (We are REALLY low on batteries)
The two of us.
Friday 1.6.2007 – The sun returned
Kristian woke up already at 5.30 to wish the long waited guest welcome. We had four full days of thick mist and rain showers in a row and when you’re on a one week escape four days is a lot. But with a sunshine this morning all those rainy days became just a distant memory. We could recharge the batteries and we could dry all our damp gear. Must be great to sleep in a dry sleeping bag tonight and write this report with no hurry.
In addition to setting solar panels in optimal position we made final improvements with the wood shed and carried all the crucial gear from boat shed there. Now it’s all under a one, waterproof roof and there’s plenty of room for the new gear, too. Other maintenance duties included dishwashing and removal of the ’stuff’ from the toilet. Looks like the eco-toilet works well. Temperature was high and the stuff looked like ”earth” already. But hey, I’m not going to eat carrots grown ’there’.
The Sabine’s Gulls have been rather aggressive towards us when we’ve been walking on certain rocks here. It’s a nesting time and poor things don’t know that we use chicken eggs for pancakes. They make furious kamikaze attacks and sometimes launch their bombs, too. Today Kristian was hit by a big one when washing dishes. I’m already feeling sorry for the future keepers as their accuracy seems to improve day by day.
The research institute for fisheries and game Finland made a seal counting today. According to rumours there were as many as 500 of them on a cliff some 0,5-1 miles Northwest of Märket. They will do a second flight tomorrow to recheck the situation.
As the weather turned better we had our first and only outdoor cooking sessions. We carried the gas grill behind the lighthouse and watched sunset while frying meat and pancakes. We had much meat left as we’ve been on vegetarian diet so far. Kristian tried bravely to swallow them all, but he had to leave some for tomorrow.
As we were cooking food a small vessel was approaching from west. They came closer and closer and now they are anchored only 200 meters west from the shore. It’s a swedish fishing boat and looks friendly. Kristian thought that we should still keep watch through the night in case of suprise attack. We have a lot of technology here the swedes are after. For example the beer can stove. Seriously, they have full working lights on and they are not having a friday night off, like most of us. (The photo was taken through binoculars)
Tomorrow is our last full day in Märket and it’s going to be sunny. Our mastermind, Pekka, informed us about possible visitors tomorrow and we will have everything set up for them. And for all of you planning to visit us tomorrow or on Sunday.
Tomorrow we will write a more compherensive story with better jokes, just like on every night during our stay. Sun has set and there is a tiny seal hopping on the rocks just in front of my window. Even if it looks like it wants to balance a ball on it’s nose, it doesn’t. It is a wild one and I’ll leave it there.
See you all later,
Märkets fyrvakter
Saturday 2.6.2007 – The divers came
Our stay here in Märket is coming to an end and it this is our last change to gaze through the window to the peaceful colors of the setting sun on the eastern horizon. We will be leaving tomorrow morning as the new crew arrives. But before that here’s our last report from the Märket reef.
The last day here has been an unforgettable one. We had prepared ourselves for possible tourists visits today, but we got bit suprised when we saw a man in full scubagear standing next to the wood shed and asking directions for landing.
’The southern side is shalow and northern too rough’, was our guideline. The giant frog then waved for the approaching dingyboat and who took the course for southern side. After a carefull landing two men, Malcom and Jonas, hopped off the boat.
The men were the producer and the ’dry land’ camera man of Deep Sea Productions (www.deepsea.se) filming a documentary ’The Wreck Divers’ for both SVT and YLE. So the last night vessel wasn’t here for fish, but for old shipwrecks. And Kristian wasn’t overreacting when he worried about the landing of the swedes. Later in the day they came in boatloads.
They were making an eight part documentary filming all together 30 shipwrecks all over (under) the Baltic Sea. They are on four weeks cruise and had filmed the eastern coast of Sweden, now here and they were heading for the Polish coast for the last wrecks. They had both filmcrew and archeologists on board the australian made research vessel Franklin. And yes, Jaques Cousteau films were the very favourite of the crew.
Here in Märket they were filming a ship sank in turn of 1900’s just off the western tip of island. The wreck is in two parts, one in 15 meters and the other in 50 meters. Water temperature was around +7C in surfare and +4C deep down. And the divers were freezing. The crew had a lot of experience: for example, they had found five soviet submarines sunk in World War II.
We let the crew visit the lighthouse on four occasions. Jonas and Malcom filmed the divers from the tower, and in the the evening half of the people came to get a closer look of the lighthouse. They were all given a fine lecture on the history and present changes of the lighthouse by us. Funny thing happened, when one of the crew was astonished by my british accent and asked: ’Why aren’t you talking like Matti Nykänen if you’re a Finn?’ ’Give me few beers and a jumping suit and you will notice no difference’, was my reply honoring the ski jumper legend. They left the island by the sunset and it was quiet here again.
The research institute for fisheries and game Finland conducted a second seal counting flight today and we even got the plane on camera. Timing was surprise again, but once we heard the sound of it we ran on the yard. A small plane with ”balloon” for landind on the water. Must have been a nice flight on a weather like today.
Today we did only minor organizing and it-work. I was trying to fix the lines from here to our webmaster and with a little help it succeeded. Now you can all email the present crew here on: marketlighthouse a gmail.com. Despite the few ’real duties’ we had to most hurry so far. It’s a pain to get the mobile email browser working here where reception is bad as it’s already tricky on the mainland.
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I just woke up in room and it’s 5.30 in the morning. I had fallen into sleep last few hours back when writing the report in my sleeping bag. That gives you a bit of an idea of the effect of hard work and fresh sea air. No need for other medication here.
Now the sun is high up already and it feels really warm outside. Warmer than on any occasion during our stay here, except day we arrived. Looks like the Lighthouse Society has picked a good time for changing over as they will have no problem with landing today. And the forecast says the weather will stay like this for the next days. I’m already bit jealous to the new crew.
Kristian is awake too and already heating up the water. We will try ease our return to civilized world with soap and dip in the sea. I’m not a great ice-pool swimmer myself, but you just have to take swim if you stay a week on an island, don’t you. It’s going to be freezing.
We will leave the island with mixed feelings. Now when we have got use to the rhythm here and as the weather turns better it would be nice to stay few more days, but on the other hand, the responsibilities are waiting back home and it’s time to get into them with body and mind full of energy. On this remote island one week stay is long enough to give a nice, isolated feeling. I’m sure we will feel like coming back from a longer trip when we’ll board on ferry this afternoon in Mariehamn.
I can honestly tell that the few visitors have been the highlight of the stay. There’s something very unique in the air when talking to someone for the first time in this surrounding. Hopefully you all visit the island during the summer and share that same magic with the lighthouse keepers on watch then. You won’t regret that I’m sure.
In a few hourse time we will get two boats here with visitors. Ville is coming first with two men who will be checking the wood owens and chimneys in the lighthouse and fix attachment for boats for northern shore. Later a bigger boat will come with new crew and some visitors. Press from Tidningen Åland willl visit the island as well the last lighthouse keeper, KEE Eriksson. Personally, I’m looking forward for his visit as the time here has raised many questions considering the real life of lighthousekeepers.
It is time to end our stay and reporting here on Märket. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading the diary and watching photos. We have surely enjoyed writing and shooting them. More photos will follow as soon, as we get home.
I can smell the burning the wood outside. The water must be soon ready for washing. I think I will first run few last loops on around the Märket track, take a swim and then wish the visitors welcome. This was our piece of work for saving Märket.
This will be a great summer,
The lighthousecrew #3
Kristian & Markus