Having received some interesting responses to yesterday's post, "Are all the owners of super yachts evil?" I decided to do some research. So I hit google with the same line that is the title of this post, and got some really interesting hits.
There was the super yacht crew that had to be rescued!! -- by no less than two tugboats and the cruise ship Carnival Spirit.
And then there was the case of the Serena III, where the US Coast Guard retrieved all on board just moments before the super yacht foundered.
And one mustn't ignore the sad story of the loss of the Nadine, the real super yacht in the film Wolf of Wall Street.
But then I came across what I was really after, a story of a super yacht actually carrying out a philanthropic mission -- the response of the mega-yacht Dragonfly (pictured) when a hurricane hit the islands of Vanuatu.
But was the man who masterminded the mercy dash the owner, Google co-founder Sergey Brin?
By all accounts, he was the man who gave the nod, after receiving a plea by phone, and who paid for the supplies the ship delivered, but the man behind the idea was the ship's skipper, Mike Gregory, which was something that didn't really surprise me.
After all, watching out for others has been part of seafarers' culture ever since men (and women) first went to sea.
And so it didn't surprise me, either, when I found that Captain Mark Drewelow, who has been skippering fancy yachts for over twenty years, has founded an organization, Yacht Aid Global, with the specific aim of using mega-yachts to help out in emergencies.
A laudable venture. It is a pity that, considering the deep pockets of the ships' owners, Drewelow and his colleagues are forced to beg for donations.
No comments:
Post a Comment