Carbon-neutral adventurers rescued by oil tanker

Eco-explorers aimed for the North Pole

It was meant to be a truly green expedition – proof that even the most extreme corners of the globe can be crossed without leaving a carbon footprint. But eco-adventurers Raoul Surcouf, 40, from Jersey, and Richard Spink, 32, from Bristol, were left counting the cost to the planet when they had to be plucked from the North Atlantic by a giant oil tanker.
 
The Carbon Neutral Expeditions team had intended to reach Greenland – a journey of some 2,200 miles from Plymouth – without environmentally damaging fuel, harnessing windpower instead. Its 40ft yacht, Fleur, was also fitted with solar panels and a wind turbine. Surcouf, a landscape gardener, and Spink, a physiotherapist, then planned to cross the polar ice cap on foot to conduct research for the British Glaciology Centre, raise money for charity and boost awareness of the possibilities of green travel. Around 25,000 schoolchildren were set to follow the expedition’s progress online.
 
However, 400 miles from Ireland, Fleur received such serious storm damage that the crew was forced to call Falmouth coastguard for assistance. The vessel had capsized three times in 30ft waves and winds gusting at hurricance force 12. The anchor had been lost, solar panels destroyed and the electrical wind generator ripped loose.
 
The situation was becoming life-threatening but welcome rescue came in the dispiriting form of a 113,000-ton tanker with 680,000 barrels of crude oil on board. In a statement from the Overseas Yellowstone, Spink said: “The decision was made that the risk to our personal safety was too great to continue.” Thanking the tanker captain and crew for their “outstanding” execution of the rescue, he added wryly: “The team are now safely, and ironically, aboard the oil tanker.”
 
The coastguard conformed that the tanker had been around eight hours away when the call came for help, and had sailed an estimated 50 nautical miles off-course to pick up the Fleur crew. Embarrassingly, the Overseas Yellowstone will have pumped out a massive 50-plus tonnes of CO2 to make the extra trip.
 
It is now carrying the rescued adventurers to its destination of Portland, Maine in the US – from where they will have to take an environmentally unfriendly flight home, adding another 600kg of CO2 per person to the carbon count of their ill-fated trip.

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