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 man rose from the water...
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 film crew searched for a place to land.
'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.
A new boatful of filmcrew.
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.
The film crew.
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.
The film crew was interested in the lighthouse.
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 airplane came again to count the seals. Some 500 of them there was.
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
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
