In the United States, the Coast Guard detained a man who allegedly tried to get to London across the Atlantic Ocean on a homemade floating craft that looks like a hamster wheel. This is not the first attempt he has made.
Reza Beluchi was intercepted about 110 kilometers from Tybee Island, located in the state of Georgia, on August 26. His boat was recognized by the Coast Guard as “clearly unsafe” due to its non-standard design.
For three days, the man refused to leave the boat and even threatened to commit suicide, claiming that there was a bomb on board. After he surrendered, he was taken to a Coast Guard base in Miami.
The watercraft used by Belucci was in the form of a wheel with oars used to move forward by rotating the wheel.
Currently, Beluchi is facing federal charges of obstructing boarding and violating an order of the port captain. But this is not the first time he has been detained for such actions.
Beluchi is an Iranian athlete and activist living in the United States. He has already attempted three times to travel long distances from the east coast of the United States on homemade watercraft similar to hamster wheels, which he calls hydrocapsules or bubbles.
In 2014, he had to be rescued from a similar structure in Florida, where he is from. Two years later, he had to be rescued again near Palm Beach. In 2021, he was detained after another rescue when he tried to swim from Florida to New York.
Earlier in the interview, Belucci explained his travels as a desire to raise money for various charitable causes, including the homeless and the coast guard.
