Saturday 16.7. 2016
The wind was blowing so hard that the crew change was delayed. The three musketeers from the week 28; Noora, Veera and Jake were enjoying a fine brunch at the terrace and then enjoying the sun.
Then within an hour the wind changed and started to blow from the South with the speed from 7 to 9 m/s so, the crew went back inside to enjoy their final day as lighthousekeepers. Noora was reading the Märket book, Jake was playing solitary with cards and Veera took care of the household pets; the spiders who were spinning their nets at the doorstep.
Around 14.30 o’clock the boat was spotted at the horizon. The journey home for the week 28 crew was about to start.
Wind still blows, even stronger than in the morning. The group of the week 29: Elina, Essi, Marja, Mira and Eevis is on the spot. We spent the morning in Mariehamn and had some nice lunch in Käringsund before we were able to take off to Märket. In the evening we setlled down in order to spend the coming week as light house keepers. Essi and Marja are here for the first time so we had a little tour around the island and went through all the practical matters.
As the sun set, the new crew was ready to fall asleep after waking up at 4 a.m. Looking forward for the coming week!
Sunday 17.7. 2016
Still blowing hard but towards evening wind calmed. Cleaning day, no visitors or seals today.
We cleaned the bedrooms after hearing that we might get some radioamateurs here in the coming days. We did some laundry and tried to fix a problem in the gray water system. The island like Märket is not the easiest one with all those cleaning systems.
In addition to terns (tiira), gulls (lokki) and white wagtails (västäräkki) , there’s also living a common ringed plover (tylli) couple on Märket. Today a hawk (possibly a mouse hawk) tried to land on Märket but an angry group of terns evicted it very quickly. Poor thing headed towards Eckerö. We hope that it was able to make it there.
Rumex longifolius (hevonhierakka), commonly known as northern dock (in the picture above) is propably the second largest plant on the island. Approximately 60 cm high.
Monday 18.7. 2016
The morning dawned sunny and beautifully after the night with full moon and clear sky.
Marja had decided to sleep outside listening to the calming sound of the waves.
Today the whole group took a test ride with the rubber boat and the day began with all kinds of normal daily tasks. Essi did an inventory in the lighthouse shop and Marja baked different kinds of buns for the hopefully soon arriving tourists and other visitors of the lighthouse.
Eevis had a special interest for the passing ships today. She travelled to Finland from the Netherlands with Langships mv Laura a couple of weeks ago, and she knew that the same ship would pass Märket on her way to Tornio at some point today. Around two o’clock she noticed a familiar ship in the horizont and we all climbed to the tower of the lighthouse to wave to the hospitable crew of the ship.
As no visitors were to be seen neither in the morning nor in the afternoon, Mira and Eevis decided to do something for the gray water cleaning system that wasn’t functioning as it should have. The brave ladies put the working overalls on and covered themselves with some plastic bags and got their hands dirty.
After a couple of hours of hard and stinky work the reason for the clog was discovered and fixed. Thank you Mira and Eevis! In the evening we heated up the sauna for the brave and crazy women.
Tuesday 19.7.2016
First visitors came in the morning with Mats. North wind was almost 8 m/s so Mats tightened his boat to the buoy and Elina and Mira went to pick up the guests with Märkets rubber boat. We got quite an international group with two Finnish guys and with them one gentleman from Switzerland and another one from Italy.
Italian Valerio was a photographer, who´s doing some projects on taking pictures of different boarder lines in Europe. He´s been taking pictures e.a. between Switzerland and Italy as well as Estonia and Lithuania. He said, that Märket was one the most exotic boarderlines he´s ever seen. He would have liked to stay for the night but it is not so easy here – you never know if the wind and weather are suitable to go to the mainland on the next day.
Two of our visitors were both coming to Märket because of their hobby: country spotting. They are part of the MostTraveledPeople.com. We learned that as for radio amateurs, also for Most Traveled People, Märket has it´s own status as a separate location. Also Märkets famous geocach was found today. It was found by an entusiastic geocacher and was his geocach number 1800.
Nice day. Despite the north wind, the weather is nice and sunny and towards the evening the wind calmed down and it´s supposed too be calm also in the coming days.
Wednesday 20.7.2016
Last night was extremely beautiful. Something none of us never experienced on Märket before. North wind calmed down and it was really warm. We decided to have our evening meal as a picknick on the north side of the islet watching same time the rolling waves hitting the cliffs.
On Wednesday morning we saw in the horizon quite a big boat tugging something behind it and already thought that Mats is gonna bring some more wood to Märket as the weather would´ve been perfect for that. As the boat came closer we realized that it was not Mats but a boat of a diving group, cool! They anchored themselves not too far from Märket to go diving and check some wrecks. The dangerous waters of Märket has taken many ships so there are are a lot of wrecks to be found around Märket. Inspirated by the divers we decided to make a list of all of the wrecks close to Märket.
But as it was a nice and beautiful day, there had to be visitors also and there we got them. A family from Mariehamn had decided to make a day trip to Märket and came by a boat of their own all the way from Eckerö. Julia, Leonard and Göran Seffer had a guided tour on the islet and in light house. After the tour they had a nice picknick in front of the light house before heading back to the mainland.
In the afternoon the phone rang and we got an interesting phone call from the coast guard. The cameras on top of the old warehouse were dirty and they asked us to climb on top the roof and clean the lenses. Marja was the brave one of us and did the job and now the cameras are again taking online picture from the ships entering the waters.
Thursday 21.7.2016
Fairly strong north wind blowing and pushing waves from the Gulf of Bothnia to Märket. Impossible to land on the north and east sides of the islet. The buoy on the south side would´ve been usable but still no visitors today. One boat came to take a look at the islet but decided to turn back to the mainland before we were able to take our rubber boat to the buoy. The differences between the north and south sides of the islet are really remarkable depending on the winds.
One of us has her birthday today and to celebrate that, we decided to bake an apple pie for dessert. Was delicious. Happy birthday!
To mention from our daily tasks, Mira and Eevis washed some carpets. Eevis hurt her ankle a bit yesterday so she gave her contribution to the task by sitting on the bench and using the pump. In the evening we had time to take more photos, amazing landscape here.
We´ve still been observing the birds on islet and today a heron (harmaahaikara) tried to land on Märket but the angry terns (tiira) evicted it again. They´re very determined on their territory and keeping the area clean of all new comers that try to enter the islet. On the other hand, for someone it was a good thing that the heron was evicted. The famous frog (propably the only one on Märket) now doesn´t have to be afraid of becoming a dinner of the heron.
Friday 22.7.2016
Our last whole day on Märket. We got visitors from Sweden. Family Svensson came all the way from Grisslehamn to Märket with their own boat. Since the north wind was still blowing quite strong, (7 m/s in the day time) it took a while to figure out where they could land but in the end all well and they were able to come to the south side of the islet and land there. During the week here, we´ve noticed that all the food tastes really good on Märket. Also our visitors have been more than pleased with light house-made cinnamon buns and we even launched a new name for delicious coffee. It´s called nowadays ”light house coffee” 🙂 .
The weather has been really good for the whole week and today it was perfect to do some painting. Mira and Eevis gave a completely new looks to the flag pole of Märket and re-painted some warning signs that were already a little bit fainted on the cliffs. Elina and Essi cleaned the light house and Marja took care of all things that had to be done in the kitchen so that everything would be ready tomorrow when the new group arrives to Märket.
The last whole day here went quickly as all the days here on this islet. We are all more than happy that we had a possibility to spend the week here and at the same time already dreaming of next summer. Elina, Essi, Marja, Mira and Eevis say thank you all and hopefully will be heading back to the mainland tomorrow morning.
