May 09 2009
Irony: Oil tanker rescues “carbon neutral” sailboat
You can’t make this stuff up
:
Carbon Neutral Sailboat Rescued by Oil Tanker (H/T Sister Toldjah)
What is it about those Brit’s and their love of extreme danger… Last week we had the Catlin Arctic expedition in trouble and today we have the Carbon Neutral Expedition’s sailboat being saved by an oil tanker (gulp) of all things.
The Carbon Neutral Expedition, consisting of two guys and a 40 ft.sailboat, set off on April19; their goal was to reach Greenland’s polar ice cap and be the first carbon-neutral crossing of that country. But gale-force winds caused the boat to capsize, destroying the solar panels and generator.
Richard Spink, a physiotherapist and Raoul Surcouf , a landscape gardener, set up Carbon Neutral Expeditions (CNE) in 2006 to show how journeys to some of the wildest, untouched places on the planet can be undertaken with minimal impact on the environment. Their Greenland mission was to make the first carbon neutral, double crossing of Greenland by sailing across the North Atlantic in 18 days and then skiing across the Arctic ice cap and back to the boat (over 550 miles). All done under the most horrific weather conditions.
Unfortunately nature has intervened and after a battering by hurricane force winds, they had to be rescued 400 miles off the coast of Ireland by an oil tanker after experiencing storm force 11 winds and waves of 20 to 30 feet.
To be in the debt of the oil industry. The horror.
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One Response to “Irony: Oil tanker rescues “carbon neutral” sailboat”





Yep, they capsized three times, actually. You must admit, though, that it was a really high-tech, cutting-edge thing they were trying to prove. Sailing across the ocean on wind-power? Who’d ever have thought of it?