Lighthouse Life
(It’s been over a year since we last updated our adventures here, but better late than never. A lot has happened and there is no good excuse why it’s been so silent here in the blog. We still do want to share our stories from the past year, so first let us take you back to our lighthouse summer.)
In the Summer of 2021 we anchoured Seabird to the remote lighthouse island of Isokari. It is truely an adventure to find oneself living in a small island community the whole summer.
Can you spot our boat?
Lighthouses are beacons of light still to this day, guiding sailors through the rocky waters. Their lonely isolation, grand structure have enabled lighthouses to withstand the the stormy weathers for centuries. Every night they light up the skyline, calling us to explore what lies beyond the horizon.
Like many others we found ourselves drawn to this particular speck of light. And on many occasions with different mediums of trasnport we’ve wandered to Isokari lighthouse. Like in the book Moominpappa and sea by Tove Jansson, we decided to move to this particular lighthouse island.
Isokari is a relatively big island 180ha of land and it’s part of the Bothnia Bay national park, it has a pilot station, a lighthouse, a small harbour and services for visitors. Saga’s job was to take care of the island’s guest by guiding them to the lighthouse, managing the harbour, cleaning, selling drinks and snacks and overall maintenance jobs. Working with such a fun bunch of guides it all felt too good to be true, and as the busy tourist summer took it’s course, it left most of the staff tired waiting for the cool autumn breeze. The job was a good example of “too much of a good thing”.
Joe had his own remote work station at Seabird. Working at a satellite start-up he was definitely flying high, finding customers and exploring new ideas for a new satellite launch.
Working very remotely
Joe and Happy explored the island and went diving and swimming in the clear waters whenever they could. On some days they even swam to the nearby rocky island for Happy’s morning walk, but don’t worry most days the trip was made with a SUP.
We were lucky enough to have friends and family who had the time to come and explore the island and it’s waters with us, as the busy summer kept us at bay at the island the whole summer.
When we had free time together we ventured to the rocks and skerries around the island with our SUP boards, snorkled among the green-brown seaweed jungles and walked barefooot along the smooth rocks of the island. Our ultimate favourite part of living in the outer archipleago of Finland is the rugged nature, smooth rocks and clear waters.
Seabird proved to be a great off-grid home during the sunny summer. We could be 30 days off-grid, powering our well equipped home with solar power. After 30 days we ran out of water and our septic tank was full, so we sailed to the closest city Uusikaupunki for a short visit every month and stacked our cupboards with food for weeks.
It was a wonderful adventure and after living the whole summer on Seabird we felt more confident about the path we had chosen. We are constantly at awe with the beauty nature has to offer, and to have it just behind our own doorstep feels like a dream.
Let’s see where the wind will take us next.
