Last week’s crew leaving into the mist.The amount of drinkable water we need to get by with during our stay in Märket.
Coffee – the most important meal of the day. Mud cake baked by Anne was at least as delicious as the weather in the afternoon.
Katja giving her first guiding tour.
Monday 22.6.2015
After the wonderful weather in Sunday new week dawned cloudy for the new crew. It drizzled a few times until lunchtime, after which the sky started to get clearer. The wind got harder as well, and by the evening it blew 8 m/sec from southeast.
This day was dedicated to several tasks.
Heikki and Katja did an inventory in the shop. Everything is in tiptop order now for business!
A postcard or a letter from Märket is surely a welcome surprise.
Outi and Hanna cleaned rainwater tanks.
Man at work. Heikki scraping cement off granite.
Also a coating of tar and wood oil was given to the wooden boards of the sauna terrace. In the hard wind they dried quickly.
Marja-Leena having a break.
A tern fledgling. This is why the terns are so fiercely protective these days.
Tuesday 23.6.2015
The morning was absolutely beautiful and warm, +20 degrees Celsius according to the thermometer on the wall of the engine room!
We had visitors in the morning. In the afternoon we worked on the sauna terrace. The weather turned more cloudy and a bit cooler and towards the evening wind got strong.
The sign on the southern wall of the storehouse with the phone number of the lighthouse. Visitors can inform us they are coming and ask for advice of where to disembark, for instance.
The visitors’ boat on the south side’s buoy. View from Lilla Märket’s window.
Solar panels being fed.
Women at work.
The floor of the sauna terrace is steadily becoming ready.
Wednesday 24.6.2015
Hydrocopter. Photo: Jarkko Viljanen/Studio Amanda Oy Märket as seen from a hydrocopter. Our visitor from Tuesday kindly gave us permission to publish this photo of his.
Today Mats brought us visitors, more planks and supplements to our water and diesel fuel supplies.
Katja with the group of ten visitors from Sweden and Finland.
This couple from Uppsala are geocachers and they found the geocache in Märket!
Last night it had rained enough to fill the big blue rainwater tub. The weather this week has been very hospitable and stayed nice and warm while we’ve had visitors. Here Hanna and Katja are paying tribute to the sun. Or doing rain yoga, because soon after Mats and the visitors left, it started to rain again and the wind got strong.
Thursday 25.6.2015
Weather stayed windy and mostly sunny the whole day. Temperature is around +13 C.
Some more cement scraping was done and a problematic part of the terrace floor was solved and finished. Windows of the lighthouse tower were cleaned and the stairs, the shop and the museum room were hoovered. We also heated a bit in some of the rooms, to dry the humidity.
Anne has been pampering us with incredible amounts of magnificently delicious food all week. Whenever she’s not in the kitchen doing wonders, she can be found photographing.
Conundrum: How many swallows in the nest?
Marja-Leena, Katja and the plank challenge.
We had a grill party! Heikki as dj.
Evening light on the western side.
Friday 26.6.2015
Time flies when you are having fun. This is already our last day in Märket, if everything – meaning the change of shifts on Saturday morning – goes as planned, that is. Our shift is one day shorter than usually, we arrived in Sunday. Life’s not fair.
Weather continued to be sunny and windy (ca 7m/sec) during the day. The evening was very calm.
Today we had surprise guests, as five women arrived around 1 p.m. on kayaks. They had paddled from Skarven for three hours and stopped by to see the lighthouse and have a little rest on the sunny cliffs before their journey back.
One of the daily duties is, of course, doing the dishes. But it’s not that bad at all with this kind of view!
There’s a constant traffic on the passage between Finland and Sweden. Here’s a cargo ship passing Understen Lighthouse.
The kayaks and other equipment of the paddlers.
Katja in the lighthouse tower with our guests.
During our stay here in Märket we’ve seen several flying objects, which we call birds, birdies, chubby birds, small or big birds. Some we call swallows, (arctic) terns, wagtails and cormorants. This one we know for certain to be a tern.
Tonight it is time for sauna and feeling a little wistful as the time to leave Märket gets near.
Our last evening in Märket was weatherwise absolutely beautiful. We had a late dinner in the terrace. And on top of everything, we finally saw a seal! It waved to us and stayed in the nearer one of the furthermost cliffs on the western side of the lighthouse at least until most of us went to sleep. Happy end!
