If nothing else, Mother Nature has a sense of irony.
Two British environmental activists, whose carbon-neutral voyage to Greenland's polar ice cap resulted in a storm-induced mayday call, were rescued by (wait for it) … an oil tanker.
The activists, Raoul Surcouf and Richard Spink, were two weeks into their adventure aboard the Fleur, a 40-foot yacht outfitted with solar panels and a wind turbine, according to British daily The Guardian. Thousands of schoolchildren had planned to follow the green expedition online.
But the weather was not cooperative. The ship encountered hurricane-force winds and waves battered the vessel, strong enough to destroy the solar panels and the ship's generator. The yacht capsized a total of three times before the crew was forced to issue a distress call to the coast guard and hope for rescue.
"The decision was made that the risk to our personal safety was too great to continue," Spink said in a statement.
Those hopes were realized in the form of the 113,000-ton tanker Overseas Yellowstone, carrying 680,000 barrels of oil. The ship picked up the Fleur's crew about 400 miles off the Irish coast. - CBS News Story
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