August 06, 2021
Reza Baluchi has failed at his fourth and latest effort to “walk” across the ocean in a bubble of his own design.
This time, he was headed from Florida to New York to raise money for first responders, sick children and people who are homeless, he told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office reported that Baluchi, 49, left St. Augustine July 23 in his “hydropod” with the goal of reaching New York. Instead of going 1,000 miles north, he ended up on a beach 30 miles south of where he started out.
He said he had to abort his trip after discovering some of his safety and navigation equipment had been stolen. His belongings were eventually recovered.
His vessel looks much like the wheel in a guinea pig or gopher pet cage. Baluchi runs inside the wheel and paddles placed on the outside of his vessel propel the cage forward, at least in theory.
Other local Florida news reports said Baluchi was not headed for New York but for Bermuda. And, in fact, his website was promoting that his “adventure to Bermuda” would be “available with live feed from ocean.”
While the US Coast Guard has not made an official comment on this attempt yet, it has previously said Baluchi’s vessel has been determined “to be manifestly unsafe,” with the USCG telling him that by attempting to travel over 1,000 miles via a bubble he would be “putting himself in grave danger on the high seas.” Baluchi requires a Coast Guard safety license to operate a vessel in US waters.
Baluchi made his first attempt in 2014, resulting in him being rescued by the Coast Guard after being found disoriented and asking for directions to Bermuda.
He made his second attempt in April 2016, and was stopped by the Coast Guard, who said it was an “inherently unsafe voyage attempt.”
A third attempt saw Baluchi detained by the Coast Guard and placed in a psychiatric hospital under the Florida Mental Health Act.
Before that, Baluchi was known for his road running. He has run from Los Angeles to New York twice, and once circled the US perimeter in an 11,720-mile trek.
Baluchi said he was imprisoned in Iran and tortured for running afoul of the Islamic regime. He fled to Germany when he was in his 20s and was eventually granted political asylum in the United States.
Now he says his goal is to raise awareness and money for various causes with his running sprees and now with his efforts to run on the ocean.
People donate to his organization, Run with Reza, to track his treks in real time on his website and watch his livestreams. He says he wants to inspire others to do the same.
“My goal is to not only raise money for homeless people, raise money for the Coast Guard, raise money for the police department, raise money for the fire department. They are in public service, they do it for safety and they help other people,” Baluchi told WOFL-TV in Orlando.