Students Need Rescue From Boat Made of Kiddie Pools

It's all fun and games until someone needs a rescue. CNN reports that two California college students who fashioned a boat out of two kiddie pools, plywood, duct tape, and 20 five-gallon plastic buckets ended up needing to be rescued from the Pacific Ocean on Saturday. As one might suspect, they set sail at the sensible hour of 2am from Isla Vista, which People reports is near UC Santa Barbara (the students' school wasn't identified). Santa Barbara County Fire says that the oar the two had with them ended up not cutting it. "The tide kept pushing them further and further from shore—approximately 300 yards before County Fire was summoned," said SBCF rep Mike Eliason per KCRA.

The Los Angeles Times reports the emergency call was made from someone onshore who spotted them thanks to something they apparently had on board: strobe lights. Crews rescued them at 2:37am, per a tweet from SBCF that noted alcohol was not a factor. There were no injuries and the ocean was calm at the time, but Eliason noted the water temp was in the 50s and the men weren't in wetsuits. "They didn’t seem to be in any distress, but they were just floating out there," said Eliason. "We managed to bring them back to shore and they were grateful. I just wish they had planned whatever they were doing a little better." CNN has this (burn?) from Eliason: "They were not engineering students." (More strange stuff stories.)