Marcus is our newest member. He arrived yesterday and will stay here for one week. He lives in Helsinki and in Lemland, Aland. Marcus studies telecommunication engineering at Aalto University, School of Science and Technology in Espoo. He has already studied 6 years and it will still take some years until he graduates. He likes studying, and the student life too.

Marcus has visited several lighthouses, e.g Söderskär and Sälskär. Märket he visited last year. He joined the Lighthouse Society this spring. Marcus' other interests are radio scanning and all things connected with computers and electronics. He has planned circuits to control various processes. One good example is a beer vending machine - pity he did not take it with him. There is no beer available here and a lot of thirsty workers!

He has also constructed - planned and built - a watch-tower on his summer place in Sipoo. It is a beautiful construction - a bit like Höga C in Godby. It is 12,5 m high and he has installed and programmed a weather station on it which sends online information to his server. And he has built a little lighthouse on his jetty in the summer place too.

The Lighthouse Society asked Marcus to the camp because he speaks Swedish as his first language and can thus make the Swedish guided tours better. He actually did his first guiding today. But now that we know which other - very useful - skills he has, we'll find him a lot of other duties. Marcus loves the sea and dislikes cities: too much noise, too much people. On Märket it is quiet and not too much folks.

As a student of technology Marcus understands more about the radio amateurs than we others do. It is however not his main field of interest. He has so many other interests. So we are still waiting to see a real radio amateur here on Märket - which is supposed to be a paradise for radio amateurs!


Marcus listening to VHF transmissions

Yesterday our team showed its unsurpassed talent in technology. In the we found some old tackle-blocks and took them in production with no hesitation. It helped very much to lift three heavy windmill accumulators. The tackle-blocks are now permanently installed. Today we did not find anything worth lifting.


Old tacle-blocks in use

Today we had only one visitor: Sören Karlsson from Finström. Some boats slowed down when passing the island, but did not stop. We wondered whether they thought it is a private island. That's why we constructed a new billboard to advertise: MÄRKET - WELCOME. This simple message concers all of you too!

Weather is a topic that is discussed normally only in Finland and in Great Britain. Elsewhere it is regarded boring. Sea weather is of course another question. All the same: to serve our Finnish and British readers we are happy to give this short report: the weather has been perfect the whole week, temperature warm but not too hot, winds brisk but no storms, very little and mostly pretty clouds, magnific sunsets and not a drop of rain.

Our group, with the exception of Marcus, is leaving on Saturday so tomorrow we'll write our last blog. We still have three ladies to present - stay tuned!