Kristian woke up already at 5.30 to wish the long waited guest welcome. We had four full days of thick mist and rain showers in a row and when you're on a one week escape four days is a lot. But with a sunshine this morning all those rainy days became just a distant memory. We could recharge the batteries and we could dry all our damp gear. Must be great to sleep in a dry sleeping bag tonight and write this report with no hurry.


The solar power panel for mobile phones is most important single object on Märket!

In addition to setting solar panels in optimal position we made final improvements with the wood shed and carried all the crucial gear from boat shed there. Now it's all under a one, waterproof roof and there's plenty of room for the new gear, too. Other maintenance duties included dishwashing and removal of the 'stuff' from the toilet. Looks like the eco-toilet works well. Temperature was high and the stuff looked like "earth" already. But hey, I'm not going to eat carrots grown 'there'.

The Sabine's Gulls have been rather aggressive towards us when we've been walking on certain rocks here. It's a nesting time and poor things don't know that we use chicken eggs for pancakes. They make furious kamikaze attacks and sometimes launch their bombs, too. Today Kristian was hit by a big one when washing dishes. I'm already feeling sorry for the future keepers as their accuracy seems to improve day by day.

The research institute for fisheries and game Finland made a seal counting today. According to rumours there were as many as 500 of them on a cliff some 0,5-1 miles Northwest of Märket. They will do a second flight tomorrow to recheck the situation.

As the weather turned better we had our first and only outdoor cooking sessions. We carried the gas grill behind the lighthouse and watched sunset while frying meat and pancakes. We had much meat left as we've been on vegetarian diet so far. Kristian tried bravely to swallow them all, but he had to leave some for tomorrow.


A Swedish fishing vessel, safely on the Swedish waters.

As we were cooking food a small vessel was approaching from west. They came closer and closer and now they are anchored only 200 meters west from the shore. It's a swedish fishing boat and looks friendly. Kristian thought that we should still keep watch through the night in case of suprise attack. We have a lot of technology here the swedes are after. For example the beer can stove. Seriously, they have full working lights on and they are not having a friday night off, like most of us. (The photo was taken through binoculars)


Oil rescuing work on Märket (see yesterdays story about the oil leak).

Tomorrow is our last full day in Märket and it's going to be sunny. Our mastermind, Pekka, informed us about possible visitors tomorrow and we will have everything set up for them. And for all of you planning to visit us tomorrow or on Sunday.

Tomorrow we will write a more compherensive story with better jokes, just like on every night during our stay. Sun has set and there is a tiny seal hopping on the rocks just in front of my window. Even if it looks like it wants to balance a ball on it's nose, it doesn't. It is a wild one and I'll leave it there.

See you all later,
Märkets fyrvakter