The day started late. The last ones came to breakfast at 9. But to their defense must be said that they worked until midnight. They did planning of next year.


At 8.30 came a shock: Tapio opened a TV on his Nokia intelligent phone. What we heard and saw was Matti Rönkä at 8.30 YLE TV news. So, TV on Märket after some 37 years without it. Is the magic of Märket gone now? No it isn´t. We are all the time surraunded with masses of messages from the outer world. Writer of this tries to manage with all his four mobile phones and two email addresses. To start with.



The remains of Märket´s sauna after the storm.


The storm threw the extra mast piece to the Southern pond.

The storm was gone. It was still blowing some 10 ms but in the evening less than 5 ms. Waves git the reef all day, but softly. The biggest difference is in the sound: it is again quiet here.


The heating room of the machine house will get new use: a place for toilet!

The group of experts started to go through the planning list they finished last night. They went from he machine house to the tower. After the trip everybody understood that this place is not ready yet, and will not be in the near future. But we were very optimistic. We have done good work thanks to all the hundreds of volunteers that have been here with serious intention to help this place.


A finding from the lighthouse: US military food package from 1975. RA´s, do You recognize this?

Jake and Ari made the lunch. Chicken risotto. Delicious. The work was done. We got confirmation from the Mariehamn airport: Skärgårds Helikoptertjänst (SHT) will pick up three of us at 5 PM. It was time for a short break.



SHT helicopter arriving.


The helicopter in the H-spot


The pilot and the passengers.


Suddently at 4.30 PM we heard roaring from the South East. The big red Eurocopter came fast and landed on the H -mark. It fit on the H-mark slightly. The young pilot Joonas greeted us. He has been on Märket before, but not in the lighthouse. We showed him the place and offered coffee. Great pilot!


It was time for Ari, Tapio and Jake to leave. The helicopter rose with huge noise and it was soon gone. The guys changed to the Helsinki flight - the whole trip took less than 2 hours. It would be great if we could develop partnership with this succesful helicopter company, based on Åland. Helicopter is a great vehicle when there are no other alternatives.



Pera and Angela working with the wires.


The silence landed on Märket. Angela, Pera and Pekka went to tighten the wires of the wind mill mast after the advices of the experts. It is a big challenge to keep the wind mill alive through the coming winter.

The sunset was beautiful as normal on Märket. Now the sun went down exactly when it hit the Understen lighthouse, our nearest neighbour. Pera fried eggs, which we ate with knäckebröd and tuna conserve. We felt happy. It was dark and chilly outside, warm here in. What a great time we have had these four days we have spent here - thanks to the storm that didn´t let us out from here. The spirit was harmonous, everybody was planning the future of Märket from their hearts. Big time, big time!


Tomorrow we will leave this place and leave it to Harri and Antero.
Greetings from Märket
Angela, Harri, Pera and Pekka



The diary keeper with Pera.