Florida man arrested after trying to cross Atlantic in hamster wheel vessel
bbc.com
bbc.com
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> On or about August 27, 2023, the USCG Cutter VALIANT continued to make efforts to disembark BALUCHI utilizing their small boat. However, BALUCHI displayed two knives and threatened to hurt himself if officers boarded the Vessel. Moreover, BALUCHI threatened to blow himself up, along with the Vessel. USCG officers believed this to be a valid threat, as they observed BALUCHI holding wires in his hand. USCG officers contacted the U.S. Navy Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit at Kings Bay, Georgia to determine blast and fragmentation radius of the alleged bomb.
> On or about August 28, 2023, the USCG Cutter CAMPBELL arrived on scene with the USCG Cutter VALIANT to provide support. The USCG Cutter CAMPBELL launched a small boat to attempt to deliver food, water, and predictions of the incoming hurricane to BALUCHI. USCG officers again ordered BALUCHI off the Vessel, but he again refused. It was then that BALUCHI informed the USCG officers that the bomb was not real.
The complaint goes on. The Coast Guard spent a week on this guy. Seems like he wasn't obeying the rules and earned his arrest at a minimum. All of this while a hurricane was on its way.
the imploded submarine was consistently told it was unsafe, but also had managed to make several successful dives. it did have failsafes, albeit woefully ineffective, and a crew on a ship hanging out above. they had real operational plans and experience, they just cut corners on everything and eventually it went bad.
> [US Coast Guard] officers determined Baluchi was conducting a manifestly unsafe voyage," the criminal complaint says.
Since when is it illegal to do things that are unsafe in America? Why can I own a gun and fireworks and liquor and gas stoves and toxic chemicals then?
> Officials said he refused to step off the vessel and threatened to kill himself. He also claimed that he had a bomb on board, according to court papers.
Sounds about right for Floridaman vibes.
Vs. this guy's "water wheel" seems to fairly-mostly avoid those issues, if the CG could just say "YOYO" and forget about him.
This sounds like something adults should be allowed to opt out of. As long as the rest of us can be mature enough to not call for heads when some of them inevitably die, there shouldn’t be moral hazard. (Or maybe you’re rescued but you foot the entire bill.)
If a person were on top of a tall building wearing a bed sheet as a cape, letting them jump would be a similar moral issue in my eyes.
If this person was warned that he would not be rescued and the next day sent out a distress signal, do you really think coast guard and other agencies would ignore the call for help?
Arizona's stupid motorist law, which "states that any motorist who becomes stranded after driving around barricades to enter a flooded stretch of roadway may be charged for the cost of their rescue," is the model legislation here [1].
Of all the stupid things regular people can do to add strain/cost to the united states' social systems, "unsafe voyage" seems pretty low on the list, both in cost and frequency. I'd guess that injuries as a result of accidental gun discharge and/or fireworks easily 10x-100x yearly spend on search and rescue.
> Plus too-trusting friends & family who are along for the ride on their SS Davey Jones, collisions with other boats, cleaning up the wreckage and oil slicks, etc., etc.
I am not arguing that unsafe voyage is a bad idea. I am arguing that it's out of character for this country to ban a specific bad idea due to safety.
Fireworks are illegal in many states. Guns are regulated and there's widespread efforts for more.
And there is constant advocacy for stronger restrictions/bans.
The point is, we do restrict people's actions on fireworks and guns in order to prevent larger costs. They are not a counter example for why the Coast Guard should have done nothing in this case.
Presumably if he’d chartered a tug to drop him off in international waters he could’ve been clear of the coast guard.
> Officials said he refused to step off the vessel and threatened to kill himself. He also claimed that he had a bomb on board, according to court papers.
> On 1 September, he eventually surrendered and abandoned his vessel after being brought to a Coast Guard base in Miami.
> Officials later determined that the "bomb" had been fake.
> He is now facing federal charges of obstruction of a boarding, and violation of a Captain of the Port order.
He wasn't arrested for an unsafe vessel, he was arrested for everything else it appears.
No amount of “he made his own adult decision” is going to fix the optics of not helping his family on CNN begging the state to bring daddy's half-eaten remains back for a proper burial.
Society is not okay with that.
dude wants to try to run across the ocean in a hamster wheel? fuck yeah, let’s cheer him on.
With ocean currents, winds, etc., it seems vastly unlikely his contraption would have traveled any distance the ocean didn't allow anyway.
For those not familiar with U. S. geography, New York is north of Florida, not south.
Given that this is his third/fourth attempt at hamster wheeling in the Atlantic they probably knew exactly who it was when they got the call.
> Officials said he refused to step off the vessel and threatened to kill himself. He also claimed that he had a bomb on board, according to court papers.
Fortunately he did not actually have a bomb on board.
The imploded submersible guy was well known in the industry to be cutting corners and playing fast and loose, but had done successful dives in the past, and had a boat there to support him. Playing fast and loose in a sub will eventually get you killed -- and it did -- but there was at least something of a track record.
The seafaring types might have a definitive answer.
At four MREs per day (510 to 740 grams ea.), plus six liters of fresh water, one week supply would weigh 60 kg. Making five knots for 10 hours per day would be generous. At that blistering velocity, 4500nm would take thirteen weeks, needing 780kg of food & water. Which would prevent his wheel from turning. Of course, if he knew how to plot a course, he'd have the winds at his back.
Not that this Florida man had any chance of repeating the achievement.
Check out "Naufragé volontaire : Sans vivres sur l'Atlantique" by Alain Bombard[0] if you want to read what a crossing on a small vessel entails.
Why does the coastguard have jurisdiction? Because it was launched from the USA? At what point is your vehicle a ship? i.e. is a surfboard a ship?
Oceanic trade generates great economic value and requires seafarers. Seafaring is inherently dangerous, but the rate of death of seafarers is much less than it would be if it weren't for coast guards, one of whose main functions is rescuing seafarers in distress. This rescuing function is expensive, so one of the rules of the sea that the countries of the world have agreed on is to make it illegal to do anything that puts too great an economic stress on the rescuing function. It is OK with me.
Try to mount a poorly-planned and poorly-funded journey to the South Pole and the same thing will happen to you if they catch you--for the same reason.
> "They are in public service, they do it for safety, and they help other people."
Countless human hours spent preventing someone from doing something that would harm no one but himself.
There are probably good Samaritan laws forcing public officers to provide "help" if they are informed of a situation and no way out of it. A family member that is a cop said to never tell anything in good faith to a cop because then they are forced by law to follow procedures, even if they don't want to otherwise they are the ones getting arrested/fired/suspended.
Is a danger for himself but also to other ships that could crash against that structure. The sea is a busy road and this thing can easily sink a small boat carried by the wind, or crush somebody if carried by a wave onboard of a bigger ship and falling over a worker.
Plus recent spy issues of people mapping sensible locations while pretending to be a lost tourist, that must be addressed.
Saving his life is just the cherry on top. To save the rescue team to risk their lives later is the main goal. The man is an idiot that should know better and respect the sea.