An expedition team which set sail from Plymouth on a 5,000-mile carbon emission-free trip to Greenland have been rescued by an oil tanker.
Raoul Surcouf, Richard Spink and skipper Ben Stoddart sent a mayday because they feared for their safety amid winds of 68mph (109km/h).
All three are reportedly exhausted but safe on board the Overseas Yellowstone.
Mr Surcouf, 40, from Jersey, Mr Spink, 31, and Mr Stoddart, 43, from Bristol, are due to arrive in the USA on 8 May.
‘Heartfelt thanks’
The team, which left Mount Batten Marina in Plymouth on 19 April in a boat named the Fleur, aimed to rely on sail, solar and man power on a 580-mile (933km/h) journey to and from the highest point of the Greenland ice cap.
…
But atrocious weather dogged their journey after 27 April, culminating with the rescue on 1 May after the boat was temporarily capsized three times by the wind.
…
Water was also getting into the boat from waves breaking over it and the crew took refuge in the forward cabin.
The crew were 400 miles (644km) off the west coast of Ireland when they sent a mayday to Falmouth coastguards who co-ordinated the rescue with Irish coastguards.
The transfer from the Fleur to Overseas Yellowstone was achieved in 42mph (67km/h) winds.
see the complete story from BBC NEWS here
(h/t to Philip Bratby – I suppose the boat becomes eco-pollution on the high sea now – Anthony)
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I get it, and I totally understand it too. You know if I wer clever enough to write a grant request and market myself, and did not really mind being cold as much as I do. I might be tempted to be a greenie too. As a kid, I used to dream of adventure on the high seas, blazing the Oregon trail, re-tracing the step of Jack London or Shackleton. Nothing like a heroic ordeal for a man to prove his meddal.
Damned thing is the world is just so domesticated now, all of the great adventures have already been done, and the ones that are left such as being a Pirate off the coast of Somalia are just too dangerous for a solo white man to consider.
Yeah, I sympathize. I was born in the wrong century myself, but there has to be a better cure for the boredom that civilization brings. Maybe they should give video games a try.
Les Francis (06:17:45) :
We must invent a new word for Ecotists.
The word lunatics has already been used up by Moon lovers
There already is one. EnvironMentalists.
“The wind generator and solar panels were ripped from the yacht.”
Rather targeted, don’t you think? Perhaps there is a message there.
Fear not for these intrepid explorers, the will spend years on the climate speaking circus… oops, I mean circuit, declaring that they successfully made their point.
[The expedition was followed by up to 40 schools across the UK to promote climate change awareness.]
So, the outcome will be..?
Deep joy.
@masonmart: being silly a precondition for eco ventures?
IMHO, they’re doing silly things like this because they generally live in such sheltered conditions that they have lost touch with the reality of the unbridled power of nature.
When you live your life on the near side of a glass screen (e.g., TV or computer), you’re going to be missing out on some aspect of reality. When you live in a climate-controlled dwelling and drive in a climate-controlled vehicle to a climate-controlled school, store, or workplace, you may find it difficult to remember how it drains your productivity to have to do without heat in the winter or A/C in the summer.
For example, you might conclude that turning off your lights for 1 minute is going to help “save the planet”. I’m referring to the promotion on Nickelodeon. Oh, did anyone else notice that their promotion to turn off all your electrical devices for 1 hour happened to coincide with the broadcast of their annual Kids Choice Awards program? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
I’m sorry. I just don’t get it. If we were able to indeed reduce everyone’s so-called “carbon footprint” to the level of 150 years ago, what in the world makes the elitist, sheltered proponents of AGW think they will continue being able to make the megabucks they have become accustomed to?
I guess when your goal is to be king of the world, you don’t really give a flip what happens to the country and people who nurtured you and made it possible for you to have the riches and influence that you enjoy.
Thank God for Big Oil!
It just keeps getting better.
Carbon footprint, as in stupid.
The MT Overseas Yellowstone is 113,000 tons 280 meters long and 40 meters wide, it uses diesel fuel for maneuvers and runs on heavy fuel, its average speed is 13 knots
To stop maneuver and start as described, would use tons of fuel, enough energy to power a fleet Hummers over the same distance,
‘The expedition was followed by up to 40 schools across the UK to promote climate change awareness.’
Given that this crew were using ‘eco-approved’ power, it is clear that the climate change awareness amounted to the AGW argument. As a legal judgement insisted that Gore’s Inconvenient Truth could only be shown in English schools as part of a balanced debate that involved both sides of the argument, it would be interesting to know if the spirit of that judgement was being applied here or whether our children are being subjected to more government-sponsored brainwashing.
“Bad luck, keep up the spirit, give it another try.”
Darwin will not be denied.
I don’t think so many people is really convinced of this carbon issue. Many make a good living thanks to the funding of NGOs and all they have to do, at least, is to proclaim they are followers of the “truth”. So why not to be rescued by anyone?
That just has to hurt.
Do you think they debated whether they should accept the offer of the rescue given that it was ‘one of those ships’?
No me neither.
this is a southpark episode in the making…
Once these eco-loonies venture forth from the comfortable confines of their living rooms where fantasies abound of that loving couple – Father Earth and Mother Gaia – they face the cold reality that that couple can be quite heartless. In this case, Mother Gaia turned out to be quite an unforgiving … witch.
Climate Heretic (06:24:29) :
These naive souls believe that their ideological purity exempts them from nature and physics. There is a major loss of life and limb coming with high risk that the rescuers will also pay a price for these idiots foolishness. Would that they could be left to their just deserts.
Here is some real sailors:
http://www.volvooceanrace.tv/page/FeatureDetail/0,,12573~1603923,00.html
More weather than you can shake a carbon fiber boom at.
Ericssons have made landfall in North America once again, it’s been a while.
Let me guess; they got in trouble because their Egyptian cotton sails tore in the wind, and some of the hemp ropes and lines broke.
Well one good thing when that happens, is you can always light a match to the rope and smoke it; well maybe not that would take a Butane lighter wouldn’t it ?
Gosh! some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed.
Power Grab (08:12:42) said:
IMHO, they’re doing silly things like this because they generally live in such sheltered conditions that they have lost touch with the reality of the unbridled power of nature. For example, you might conclude that turning off your lights for 1 minute is going to help “save the planet”.
We had one of those “events” recently in Houston.
As far as I can tell, NOBODY actually turned off the lights.
I myself gathered up 3 dusty old 500W halogen outside lights (from before our renovation) stuck some plugs on them and pointed them straight up into the live oaks in the front yard. Ta-da! Daytime, for the same cost as running a hairdryer.
For any true-believer luddites who want to put their lives where their rhetoric is, there’s a very easy solution at hand: move quickly and directly to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. [Robert McNamara IIRC is credited with the phrase “voting with your feet”, which applies] There, everybody economizes on electricity at night.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/dprk-dark.htm
Or, if you are “fed-up” (pardon) with modern agribusiness making you fat, there’s always the Bangladesh Diet Plan. Guaranteed to work in a few short weeks; pity about the Shigella.
Speaking of humorous : In the “latest from the ice” the Catliners reported:
” Food, fuel and other crucial supplies were given to the Ice Team. In return, the Ice Team gave the pilots the vital data cards to be brought back the UK. ”
Wow, vital data cards. Vital to whom? Without them I guess the UK will perish.
Climate Heretic (06:24:29) said:
Carbon Free Sailing – well except for the composite hull and man-made materials in the ship itself, electronics, solar panels,etc…
Quite right!
Considering that UK is the Motherland of Sailing, and still boasts some of the best naval architects and designers going (google Nigel Irens, my favorite), shouldn’t this vessel have been, say:
12-14M Bristol or Channel gaff rigged cutter (smaller, easier to trim sails, low center of drive) [NB two of the three stooges WERE from Bristol, oh the shame]
double planked live oak, oakum and pine pitch caulked
deep keel with a nice full forefoot, full rudder
selveged spruce or tamarack mast, boom, gaff and sprit (I’m sure there’s a Prince of Wales property with an appropriate specimen)
hot glavanized stays (please do not stand downwind of the process, thank you)
Siamese teak deck, Bengali hemp lines (hail britannia)
Real brass sextant & bronze portlights, blocks and cleats
Real cotton canvas sails, say tanbark
Heavy, seaworthy, rugged and slow. Wasn’t that the lesson of the Fastnet?
Besides, the Not-So-Bonny Prince Charlie would have gotten behind such an endeavor in a heartbeat. It would have had the further advantage of delaying departure for a couple of years while this climate thing gets sorted-out.
Thermoset resins and glass fibers are just so poisonous! And EXTRUDED Alu-min-ium mast and boom!!! Think of the wasted electricity to smelt them puppies.
Curious that environmentalists aren’t all over these folks for sailing such an “unnatural” unbiodegradable craft.
AND further to Anthony’s “ecopollution”: since the tanker likely doesn’t have a crane or proper davit to handle the sailboat, or means to store it safely aboard, it was likely left adrift to eventually sink (a hazard to navigation in the meantime) OR, more properly, SCUTTLED. I will bet 5 pounds sterling that these idiots didn’t open the seacock on abandining ship (or even know where it was).
Finally, wonder where the tanker was headed? Regardless, these woebegotten sailors are headed THERE. Perhaps there should be a welcoming party; we could give them a copy of the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, or Bowditch, or maybe one of Bill Buckley’s sailing books.
With apologies to any Trekkies among us, the REAL Prime Directive:
Don’t Be A Twit.
What happened to the sailboat? I didn’t see anybody mention that. It’s hard to imagine that they’d put the boat in tow and the story is talking like the boat was sinking just before the rescue. Wonder what the carbon footprint is on a toy like that?
Add me to the list of sailors who are gobsmacked that anyone would venture into the North Atlantic at this time of year in such a cute little boat. I’m sure they have no idea how skilled the captain and crew of the Overseas Yellowstone are to have accomplished the rescue in such conditions.
Gaia worship is a sort of gnostic animism — the problem is, what the gnostics think they know, ain’t so.
Mike86, the boat and her contents become the property of anyone who can salvage her. In answer to your other question: She should have been named the Carbon Footprint…it would have been more honest.
For those who have not found the website
http://carbonneutralexpeditions.com/the-expedition/
“It has four main objectives:
•To make the first carbon neutral, double crossing of Greenland by sailing across the North Atlantic and then completing a return ski traverse of the ice cap. (over 550 miles)
•To inspire young people to work towards their goals and develop their full potential.
•To raise awareness of climate change to over 25,000 pupils in partner schools around the UK and Jersey.
•To raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust.”