US Coast Guards have asked this man for several days to leave his boat, deeming it too dangerous. He wanted to go to London, UK.
Back to square one. According to a complaint revealed by Fox News, a man was arrested at the end of August off the American east coast while trying to cross the Atlantic on a boat resembling a giant hamster wheel.
Reza Baluchi was brought back to Florida where he faces prosecution for violating an order from the port captain, among other things.
A dangerous crossing of the Atlantic
On August 26, US Coast Guard officers were at sea when they spotted a homemade “hydro pod” off the coast of Georgia, in the southern United States. The occupant of this makeshift vessel then told the coast guard that he intended to go to London, United Kingdom. Before leaving, Baluchi posted a video of his boat on his social networks:
“Based on the condition of the vessel – which was afloat due to the presence of cables and buoys – the officers… determined that Baluchi was on a manifestly dangerous voyage,” explains the court document published by Fox News.
Three more aborted trips
When they asked him to end the trip for that reason and board their boat, Baluchi threatened to kill himself with a knife, according to Coast Guard testimony. A behavior that he repeated in the following days, also claiming to have a bomb on board, before admitting that it was a lie. He was finally disembarked from his ship on August 29.
Reza Baluchi is not his first attempt: he attempted trips in similar vessels in 2014, 2016 and 2021, all of which were interrupted by the American authorities, according to them. On his social networks and on his site, he says he wants to make this crossing sometimes to “raise funds for homeless people”, sometimes to “show the world that anything is possible as long as you believe in it”.
Source: BFM TV
