According to reports, 44-year-old marathon runner Reza Baluchi had decided to make history by running across the Atlantic from Florida to London using a home-made hamster wheel contraption.
The device (or ‘vessel’) was basically a cylindrical tube with paddles that made it possible for the occupant to effectively propel it across the surface of the water.
Impressively, given the circumstances, he managed to make it 70 miles out to sea before being stopped by the US Coast Guard off Tybee Island.
The strangeness didn’t end there, though, as Baluchi refused to come out and even threatened to blow himself up with a bomb (which, as it turns out, didn’t actually exist).
It took several days for him to finally give himself up.
This isn’t the first time he’s tried a stunt like this either – back in 2021 he was arrested while trying to go from Florida to New York, having had to be rescued after drifting 30 miles from the starting point.
He was also rescued on two earlier occasions during similar ocean-crossing attempts.
Source: BBC News
Daren c
” there will be flying cars in the future, a real life Jetsons”
Sike, it’s hamster wheeling across the ocean baby! LoL… wonder if he incorporated places for bait on the wheel so he can fish as he wheels along ? Lol
Matthew W
I wonder if Baluchi is really short? Seems like wind and tides would make his craft almost impossible to navigate. I say leave him be. If he makes it, great. If he fails, the raft will wash up somewhere eventually. Let Mother Nature take care of the rest. Can you imagine that thing rolling down a 40 foot wave in a storm, I hope he had a helmet and some padding.
avila
Being sea sick, that’s all I can focus on
looking at that thing.
Ron S
He obviously makes irrational and hasty decisions… he couldn’t even wait for the store to restock that last matching orange ball.