German ingenuity to the rescue

Getting your message across using white ink on white paper may not be your thing, but then, you’re not German. Two skiers stranded on the frozen Bothnian Bay between Finland and Sweden proved just that. They wrote a giant SOS on the floe using chunks of ice and snow. It was spotted by the Finnish border guards and they were rescued, ‘cold, but in good condition’.

The plan

According to reports, the German couple – both seasoned skiers and adventurers – were trekking about 100 miles across the frozen sea between Oulu, Finland, and Lulea, Sweden. They then camped on the floe overnight ahead of their next adventure – skiing across the frozen Bothnian Bay, which is a part of the Gulf of Bonthia – the relatively shallow northern part of the Baltic Sea.

An icy end to an adventure
The couple had been camping overnight on the Gulf of Bothnia, which remains frozen for six-seven months a year, when the floe started cracking and the bay swallowed most of their gear and left them stranded with no equipment or even a distress beacon. According to the Finnish outlet MTV News, the Sea Rescue Center Åbo received a distress call around 6.30am on March 10, following which, the West Finland Coast Guard started a search. According to a coast guard officer, airplanes from both Sweden and Finland participated in the search.
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