First day at Märket for another new crew! We have had the perfect weather for the whole day despite the early morning fog on the way here! The islet was busy with life when we arrived: the first guests had arrived at 7.30 am. Outi, one of this year's very first Märket lighthouse keepers, arrived along with a friend to see how Märket has changed during these last two months.


Photo: A coffee break between guiding the turists on the busiest day of the summer - so far.

Just when we arrived, the aerial photographer Hannu Vallas overflew several times with his plane to document the newly printed Finnish-Swedish borderline. Both the old and the new crew waived to him whilst getting a last minute briefing.

One of the guestboats brought two German journalists - Hauke and Hanne from GeoSaison to visit the islet.


Photo: Old sailing friends visited Märket. On right the famous Finnish writer on ecology and technology, Mr. Eero Paloheimo.

Märket also had an unexpected visit by a former lighthouse keeper Mr. Roland Carlberg, who arrived to make some renovation in his old workshop.


Photo: Roland Carlberg (left) with his helping hand repairing the door and windows of the hut that he built in the late 1940´s when serving as a lighthouse keeper on Märket.

Ingela and Arne - our carpentry students - started to work with the lighthouse window frames and found out that some of them were in a fairly bad condition. Ingela and Arne also went swimming and claimed that water was warm!

The first Märket day gave us a good insight to the days to come: lots of tourists as well as lots of rowing to do. Luckily our German photographer Hauke did almost all of the rowing, saving our strenghts for the next days. Hauke also gave some professional guidance on photography. Hanne was busy experiencing Märket life and exploring the seal islet.

Our first day passed so quickly that we didn't even notice how hungry we were. And we had a lovely supper with new potatoes and herring.


In the photo: The old shift leaving Märket (from left): Merja, Iiris, Antti, Marika and Kristina.

Please all, come to Märket, you are welcome!

The new crew: Sari, Asta, Ingela, Arne, Satu.