On August 26th, Reza Baluchi was about 70 miles off Tybee Island attempting to run a giant hamster wheel across the Atlantic from Florida to London where he was caught by a US coast guard. Mr. Baluchi, a 44-year old marathon runner, is said to have refused to get off the vessel for 3 days. According to officials, Mr. Baluchi has attempted about 3 similar voyages before, which all ended with him getting arrested by coastguards. The vessel is said to be built just like a hamster wheel but with paddles that push the craft forward as the wheels revolve.

Mr. Baluchi’s voyage began while officials were preparing for an arriving hurricane and when he was caught, he repeatedly refused to get off and threatened to kill himself when told to  get off. He also said that he had a bomb onboard. Finally, he surrendered on September 1st, 2023, and was sent to a coast guard base in Miami. He is now facing charges of obstruction of a boarding, and violation of a Captain of the Port order.

In 2021, Reza Baluchi was rescued and arrested after attempting to sail from Florida to New York, but made it 30 miles away from his starting point. On the other hand, In 2014, Baluchi was rescued in a similar vessel near the coast of St. Augustine. 

According to Baluchi, “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,” (BBC news).

I asked campus student Evan Galindo what he thought about this topic, and his response was, “I think that it is dumb and stupid and I don’t know why he would do this, because I would never do this.” We also asked him if he would want to try this, and his response was, “Yeah I would try this, it looks fun.”