Before talking about this day a few word about yesterday's fight to get to the lighthouse - and out from there. The conditions were extremely hard. The weather had been strange, 10 ms northerly wind during the night. Then it slowed down, turned to east, then it strenghtened again and turned to the south. When we arrived here with Granberg's boat, there was a strong swell everywhere. The waves were coming from the all possible directions. No place to land, impossible to use the northern harbour or lagoon. After a discussion between the boat and the old crew we desided to try, and soon Tuomas started rowing to the boat. He managed to do that and took Jari with him. Jari then took the rubber boat, fought himself to our boat and took first passangers.
When Jari was out for the second time with Kaarina and Henna the motor stopped. They started to row back to the lighthouse, but on the shore the returning waves hit their boat, which turned over and the passengers got the cold bath in the sea. There they were, swimming in the water others watching the situation very scared. Luckily they had safety jackets, and after the wave was gone, they realised the water wasn't deep there and they were able to walk to the ground. We then had to do the change of shifts near the eastern harbour with Eliisa rowing like a crazy. Great job! This was the first time when something like this happened, and happily the damages were only material. We only lost the cover of the rubber boats motor, but that's nothing compared with all the precious volunteers and their safety.
We didn´t have time for any briefing, because it took two hours to do the change. Luckily the old shift did get to their ferries back home! We settled down, had a evening tea and admired the sunset. But the best part came then: The full moon started to climb up directy from the sea, from the direction of the Enskär frontier guard station!
We are seven people, 4 of us women (more than half of the summers volunteers seems to be women!) Pakka, Jari, Heidi and Heini have been here before, Eliisa, Larissa and Apar are firstimers. Voluntary workers here in Märket have proved the the sex really doesn't matter; here everyone participate everything. There's no men or women works in this island. After a good seven hours sleep and traditional porrige breakfast we started the work. From the first minutes it was clear that everyone here are hardworking people!
Did you hear the strong sound of drill and hammers today? Sorry for that; we made the sound. I'm sure the sound reached all the way to the Sweden! We have been forced to wear ear protectors all the day. Eliisa took her post as the main "wallbreaker" with Apar as her pair. They were working on the top with the drill. Heidi, Pekka and Jari started also hammering the wall on the side. Cleaning of the old wall from ancient harmful concrete is a huge job, but we will manage it. Juha R from the earlier shift did a great job with it. The work progress slowly, even if we were all fasten to the wall all day, those who were working on the top even literally for safety reasons. Larissa took care that we remembered to eat and drink somehting during the day.
It was a beautiful day indeed. The sun shined and everybody was warned about the burning sun. But what can you do when the weather is warm and hard work makes you sweating, no-one want's to wear covering clothes! The sea calmed down, and we were sure to get the first pleasure boats of the summer here. But no, no boats, no visitors, not even any seals for the whole day. You shold come, we're ready to welcome you! While waiting for you, we are really alone on the sea! But again, the lonelyness is something that makes this place special.
