This morning we woke up to welcome the radioamateurs as they were supposed to arrive early. We noticed that one of the construction scaffoldings was not where it had been by the wall, but far away on the western coast of the islet. We of course wanted to save it and dragged it back but to the other side of the wall. Also the islet seems to have grown smaller in the night. There is water all over Swedens side of the island. And our best swimming place, the lagoon, has grown quite a bit during the night. It was very good that we warmed the sauna last evening as the stove had gone into pieces by big waves coming from the north. The stones are now scattered around the islet. We rescued most of the other materials. During the rescue process one big wave came and took a log and Anne almost went with it. The result is that we don´t have a tent sauna anymore. The sauna experience last nigth was interesting and short because of the heavy wind blowing straight inside the sauna. At least we got to try it.


Anne rescuing materials from the sauna


The radioamateur hoping to land

Yes, the amateurs came... and left. The waves were too big also on the southern side of the island. After last evenings experiences we did not even dream of rowing the small boat to the buoy to fetch the amateurs and all their equipment. We have been following the situation and changes in the weather all the time to let them know when to try landing again. Maybe they will try again later this evening or tomorrow morning. We hope to get them ashore soon, but for now we are truly stranded here as no one can come or leave the islet at the moment. It seems that it was a really good thing that Alexei left last evening.


A log surfing on a wave

Otherwise the sun has been shining brightly all day and thus we have been working mostly outside cleaning the place up. Anne still continued working with the kitchen door and Eva with the downstairs stormwindow. The kitchen door was carried outside to the terrace so that most of the dust would be blown by the wind and so that Anne could also enjoy the beautiful day outside.

Today we also got to grill the food, but could not unfortunately enjoy the dinner outside. Now we only have a big thunderstorm and the night outside to experience. Maybe we have to come again at least to experiece the storm as it does not seem to happen during our stay here this time.


Lea grilling our dinner

It is not possible to land on Märket from the sea, but it is possible from the air. One bird visited us inside the lighthouse as it flew straight to the second floor and into the souvenir shop. We kindly picked it up and took it back outside. It seemed that it had a specific reason to come as it did not want to leave from Ristos hand. Finally it flew away. None of us are ornithologist and could not identify the bird even though we have books here for that purpose.



Greetings from Märket,
Eva, Lea, Risto, Anne, Jessica and the "lighthouse dog" Okko