Looks like an awfully expensive rig for a homeless guy.
Posted on 07/27/2021 11:43:47 AM PDT by sodpoodle
The third time was not the charm for a man who washed up on a beach in Florida in a "bubble" as he attempted to walk on water to New York for charity. Reza Baluchi, 49, made it about 25 miles into his journey in his hydro pod, which resembles a hamster wheel installed with flotation devices, before returning to shore in St. Augustine, according to The New York Times. Fully stocked for a three-week trip, he reportedly found a day after his departure that his backup GPS device and charging cables were missing, forcing him to return to land. He was met with bewildered beachgoers when he turned up on the sand. "I open the top door and jump out," he told the Times. "They're laughing. They're taking pictures of me. I know what I'm doing. I am not dumb." Flagler County Sheriff's Office responded to a call on Saturday about Baluchi's vessel, which he calls his "bubble," washing ashore, officials wrote on Facebook. They reported that he had no injuries before the U.S. Coast Guard took over to ensure that the hydro pod is compliant for safety moving forward. Baluchi — a former professional cyclist from Iran who was granted asylum in the United States, per the Times — said that he's experienced homelessness — one of the causes to which he's trying to draw attention with his trip. "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," he told Orlando Fox affiliate WOFL. "They are in public service, they do it for safety and they help other people."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Looks like an awfully expensive rig for a homeless guy.
He should have gone at night like hamsters do...................
Same story different angle:
“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,” he told Orlando Fox affiliate WOFL. “They are in public service, they do it for safety and they help other people.”
I commend him for that for sure.
But why would GPS be necisarry? If your goin’ from Fla to ny don’t all you need to do is follow the coastline?
It is very disappointing that I can’t find a description of how this thing actually works.
Looks like a hamster wheel.
Interesting concept but I don’t see a way to steer, nor prepare food, nor sleep. The paddles seem awful small for the job.
....”so we put the homeless in bubbles and float them around. Sidewalks clean, stop lights clear of panhandlers, underpasses free of debris... sounds like a plan! What could possibly go wrong?,!”
Man in contraption washes up in Florida after trying to run on water
BBC ^ | July 27, 2021 | BBC
Posted on 7/27/2021, 11:48:44 AM by Kriggerel
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3979611/posts
Reza Ray Baluchi (born in 1972) is an athlete and activist.
His self-described mission is to unite and inspire countries around
the world. Baluchi grew up in Iran. He claims that his motivation
to improve the lives of people came to him as a young man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Baluchi
-
Reza Baluchi Placed In Psychiatric Hospital In US
August 21, 2016
Reza Baluchi
who keeps trying to travel from Florida to Bermuda in a bubble
was reportedly committed to a Jacksonville psychiatric hospital
under the Florida Mental Health Act
after making his third attempt at the 1,000 mile journey.
In his effort to avoid the Coast Guard,
Mr Baluchi tried to begin his latest attempt from international waters,
so had his bubble towed offshore to begin his journey,
however the Coast Guard stopped him for the third time.
He initially refused to leave his bubble,
and once he did and got on the Coast Guard ship,
the crew reportedly “slapped handcuffs on him”
and transported him a psychiatric hospital.
He has now been released.
This is Mr Baluchi’s third attempt, his first attempt in 2014
resulted 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.”
https://bernews.com/2016/08/reza-baluchi-placed-in-psychiatric-hospital-in-us/
No you don't and yes you are.......LOL!
They ought to call him the Hamster Man instead.........
I’d love to try it sometimes! In a pond.
He’s lucky he didn’t wind up on the coast of Africa. Just depended on the direction of the wind.
NISSEN AND HIS “FOOL-KILLER NO. 3” By Orrin E. Dunlap. It may take time and the efforts of others to demonstrate whether or not Peter Nissen has left anything of scientific value in the ideas he entertained of traveling over land or water in a balloon-shaped apparatus such as that in which he lost his life in an attempt to cross Lake Michigan on Tuesday, November 29 last. Despite his failure to survive the journey, it is evident that an apparatus such as he designed will roll with the wind over land, water, or ice, but it is too early in the history of the device to determine in what field it might prove serviceable or useful. Man has already devised and constructed so many things in which one may travel, that this infant of Nissen’s has not yet found its place.
Considering that this adventure of Nissen’s was the first of the kind man has ventured to make, it is to be regretted that he lost his life in the feat. It is reasonable to believe that he made the trip across Lake Michigan successfully, and that had aid been rendered him promptly on the Michigan shore, he would have lived to relate his experience. Even had the feat been performed at a season of the year when the weather conditions were more favorable for exposure, or more boats traveling up and down the lake, Nissen would in all likelihood be alive to-day. Recalling the stories told of sea serpents, it must be left to the imagination to conceive the story that a lake captain might have told had he been a witness of Nissen’s strange craft rolling across the bow of his boat.
Peter Nissen believed his balloon-like apparatus had a value in connection with North Pole explorations. His first experiment with a rolling balloon pleased him. This first balloon was five feet long and three feet high. It had a shaft through its center, and on this he placed a car spring. He used a car spring because it was handy and convenient, and he felt it would slide from end to end, much the same as a man might move about. His experiments delighted him, and he decided to build the larger balloon, in the operation of which he lost his life.
This balloon was made of heavy canvas, and when inflated was 38 feet long a and 22 feet in diameter. It had a porthole at each end, and through the center was a shaft about 12 feet long and 3 inches in diameter. This shaft was suspended from cords fastened around the inside, on exactly the same principle as the spokes in a wheel. On the shaft he arranged a sliding seat, so that he could move toward the ends, hoping in this way to steer the big ball by throwing one end up in the wind to cause it to swerve as he desired, as the high end would offer more surface to the wind. Suspended from the shaft and below the seat was a cradle or a boat, where he contemplated resting when fatigued from riding on the seat. A two-inch hose was run through one end of the balloon to furni sh an air supply, a pump of his own invention being on the inside. “Fool-Killer No. 3” is the name he selected, he having previously built two boats for navigating the whirlpool rapids of Niagara, the first having been named “Fool-Killer No. 1,” which was rebuilt and renamed “Fool-Killer No. 2.” This latter boat was deserted and lost in the Niagara whirlpool on the evening of Thursday, October 17, 1901, after Nissen and a companion had floated helplessly about those rough waters for seven hours.
And what kind of energy makes the paddles rotate?
I know what I'm doing. I am not dumb.
I don't think he has much experience with oceans. They have these things called tides, currents and wind. That thing looks like it will catch a bit of wind. Even a sail boat will have a tough time tacking back and forth to go upwind if it's a high wind. Add current going against you and it's hopeless. He needs to learn about the old Trade Winds that sailors used back in the days of wooden ships.
— said that he’s experienced homelessness —
Riding a bike all the time probably doesn’t pay so well. He might think to get a job.
Apparently, you're a land-lubber.
In periods of darkness, foul weather and fog, it's awfully easy to lose sight of that coastline...
I wonder why he didn’t try the intercoastal waterway? Wouldn’t that have been calmer?
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