US Coast Guard rescues man running across ocean in inflatable bubble

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**ScootyPuffJunior**

Hopefully we can all take time off from being terrified of Ebola to enjoy this:

Man running in inflatable bubble rescued off coast of Florida

CNN wrote:An ultra-marathoner trying to "run" from Florida to Bermuda in a human-powered inflatable bubble was rescued Saturday morning after he signaled for help, the Coast Guard said.

Reza Baluchi, according to his website, has set a goal of running across more than 190 recognized nations to encourage world peace. CNN ran a story about him in 2012.

The Coast Guard first encountered Baluchi on Wednesday after receiving a report about a man in a bubble off the coast of Miami, disoriented and asking for directions to Bermuda, a Coast Guard press release said. It was not clear when he started his quest.

A Coast Guard cutter found Baluchi. Officials described the craft as a "hydro pod bubble" and a man in a 2013 YouTube video called a Baluchi bubble "a big hamster wheel." It moved along the ground as Baluchi ran inside.

In the press release, the Coast Guard said Baluchi had protein bars, bottled water, a GPS and a satellite phone. The Coast Guard conveyed the voyage's dangers and asked Baluchi to quit his journey because he didn't have enough supplies. But he wouldn't leave his vessel, officials said.

The Coast Guard monitored his progress and on Saturday morning an exhausted Baluchi activated his personal locating beacon, the Coast Guard said.

A Coast Guard HC-130 airplane and MH-60 helicopter, along with the vessel Maersk Montana, were sent to rescue Baluchi 70 nautical miles east of St. Augustine, the Coast Guard said.

He was exhausted and taken to the Coast Guard air station in Clearwater, where his medical condition was evaluated. There were no reported injuries, the Coast Guard said.

"Part of his effort was to make world peace but he got caught up in the Gulf Stream," said Coast Guard public affairs specialist Mark Barney. "The chances of muscling out of the Gulf Stream were pretty low."

Baluchi could not be reached for comment, but a video posted on Baluchi's Facebook page described his plans to travel in the bubble across the Caribbean, as well as his other athletic exploits.

The CNN.com story quoted Baluchi saying he'd run across the United States twice and around its perimeter once. He fled Iran to escape persecution, he said. Now he is an American citizen.

"Reza doesn't listen to anyone," Davis Hyslop, a businessman and one of Baluchi's supporters, said in the 2012 story. "He has these outsized ambitions that he sets his mind to. He's a success above and beyond anyone's expectations. It's almost biblical. But you gotta be a little crazy to undertake such an endeavor, right?"

source

**Soladrin**

Your sig pretty much sums this up.

**Kilkrazy**

This story is a load of balls.

**Jihadin**

Wonder how many Coastie's wishing they had a pellet rifle on hand..

**Ouze**

Coast Guard: this isn't going to work.
Reza: What do you know of the sea?

I'm glad he became a citizen, because he is definitely an American at heart.

**Dreadclaw69**

Ouze wrote:
Coast Guard: this isn't going to work.
Reza: What do you know of the sea?

I'm glad he became a citizen, because he is definitely an American at heart.

Only if his adventure started with him saying "Hold my beer and watch this"

**Relapse**

I'm thinking what a jolly trip it would be after relieving one's self in that thing.

**DarkTraveler777**

Relapse wrote:
I'm thinking what a jolly trip it would be after relieving one's self in that thing.

Not going to lie, after the story went over what supplies he had, I immediately wondered what his plans were for waste removal. Was he just going to open a flap and let fly?

**Hordini**

He should probably have taken another boat and crew with him for support, like the swimmers who swim from Florida to Cuba and vice versa. Then the Coast Guard wouldn't have had to bother with him.

**Peregrine**

Now bill him for the rescue. He had a chance to take an easy rescue when it was obvious that he was going to fail, he rejected it and they had to come out and get him later. So it's only fair that by rejecting the first rescue he takes on the financial risk of continuing.

**Hordini**

Peregrine wrote:
Now bill him for the rescue. He had a chance to take an easy rescue when it was obvious that he was going to fail, he rejected it and they had to come out and get him later. So it's only fair that by rejecting the first rescue he takes on the financial risk of continuing.

I'm not sure that making someone financial responsible for a Coast Guard rescue would set a particularly valuable precedent.

**Jihadin**

Adult Diapers. Like the Whack Job in PA forest

**Relapse**

Jihadin wrote:
Adult Diapers. Like the Whack Job in PA forest

Hello, industrial strength diaper rash!

Automatically Appended Next Post:

DarkTraveler777 wrote:
Relapse wrote:
I'm thinking what a jolly trip it would be after relieving one's self in that thing.

Not going to lie, after the story went over what supplies he had, I immediately wondered what his plans were for waste removal. Was he just going to open a flap and let fly?

Adventures in the tumbling porta poddy!

**Peregrine**

Hordini wrote:
I'm not sure that making someone financial responsible for a Coast Guard rescue would set a particularly valuable precedent.

It sets the precedent that if you take irresponsible risks you can't just call for a free rescue and avoid the consequences. Remember, he was found once before and the coast guard (whose judgment I'll trust on this) said he had no chance of success and he should take the rescue while he had a chance. He voluntarily rejected the offer and decided to continue. So I don't see any problem in setting a precedent that if you tell your potential rescue to go away and leave you alone you get to pay the cost of coming back to get you when you inevitably need it.

And there's already a similar precedent in billing the idiots who press the "bring helicopter" button on their beacons when they aren't actually in legitimate danger. And I see a lot of value in a precedent that if you just decide you're tired of hiking and want a ride home you get to pay a few thousand dollars for the helicopter fuel/maintenance/etc you used up and all the time you wasted making people treat it like a serious emergency.

**Hordini**

My concern is it would eventually be used to charge people in need of a legitimate first-time rescue an exorbitant amount of money.

**Jihadin**

Your not in their shoes/boots. What you think is not life threatening they may think is life threatening. For all we know he might have ran out of water in his camelback (if he had one) and feeling the dehydration

**Hordini**

Jihadin wrote:
Your not in their shoes/boots. What you think is not life threatening they may think is life threatening. For all we know he might have ran out of water in his camelback (if he had one) and feeling the dehydration

That's the other problem. Who decides if it's legitimate or not? In this case it's pretty clear cut but in other cases it might not be.

**Peregrine**

Hordini wrote:
My concern is it would eventually be used to charge people in need of a legitimate first-time rescue an exorbitant amount of money.

But that's not how it works in practice right now. As I understand it you aren't getting billed for the rescue just because someone second-guesses your judgment and thinks that you weren't injured seriously enough or whatever, it's only the morons who call for help when they clearly aren't in any real danger and just want an easy helicopter ride home. The point is to get people to understand that it costs a lot of money to respond to a call for help, and carrying around that "summon helicopter" button is something you should take seriously.

Jihadin wrote:
Your not in their shoes/boots. What you think is not life threatening they may think is life threatening. For all we know he might have ran out of water in his camelback (if he had one) and feeling the dehydration

From the article:

The Coast Guard first encountered Baluchi on Wednesday after receiving a report about a man in a bubble off the coast of Miami, disoriented and asking for directions to Bermuda, a Coast Guard press release said. It was not clear when he started his quest.

So it seems pretty clear that he was already in trouble by that point but the coast guard just couldn't force him to accept the rescue against his will. And sure, he might have thought he was ok, but the whole point here is to get people to act conservatively instead of saying "I'm ok, I'm not guaranteed to die yet".

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Hordini wrote:
That's the other problem. Who decides if it's legitimate or not? In this case it's pretty clear cut but in other cases it might not be.

That's why you err on the side of not billing someone if there's any gray area about it. But in this case there really isn't. He had a coast guard boat out there saying "you're in trouble, let us take you home" and he voluntarily rejected the offer. So you apply a similar standard where it's assumed to be legitimate unless you have this level of obvious "any reasonable person can see you're an idiot" recklessness.

**Jihadin**

I bet next attempt he take a compass. Remember on the Declination....left add, right subtract

**hotsauceman1**

Hordini wrote:
He should probably have taken another boat and crew with him for support, like the swimmers who swim from Florida to Cuba and vice versa. Then the Coast Guard wouldn't have had to bother with him.

This sounds like a guy that did it on a whim with no reall idea of what he was doing

**Hordini**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Hordini wrote:
He should probably have taken another boat and crew with him for support, like the swimmers who swim from Florida to Cuba and vice versa. Then the Coast Guard wouldn't have had to bother with him.

This sounds like a guy that did it on a whim with no reall idea of what he was doing

Yes, I think you're right about that.

**Relapse**

Jihadin wrote:
Your not in their shoes/boots. What you think is not life threatening they may think is life threatening. For all we know he might have ran out of water in his camelback (if he had one) and feeling the dehydration

Agreed. I think being on the ocean in an enclosed, transparent bubble with possibly no ventilation, would get warm rather quickly, causing someone to go through any water in that thing in a quick fashion.

**Ensis Ferrae**

Hordini wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
Your not in their shoes/boots. What you think is not life threatening they may think is life threatening. For all we know he might have ran out of water in his camelback (if he had one) and feeling the dehydration

That's the other problem. Who decides if it's legitimate or not? In this case it's pretty clear cut but in other cases it might not be.

I could personally be down with a "surcharge" on rescuing by the Coast Guard, but there'd be one rule:

If the CG says to you, "you cant do that, due to X, we advise you to turn back now" and you don't it's no longer a legit rescue and now a "Told you so" type thing

**Skinnereal**

Similar:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/sailor-using-road-map-to-navigate-is-rescued-710914.html
His 6 rescues have cost £30,000, in one year. That was back in 2000.
This happens a lot around our coast. Road maps are no use at sea.

**Ouze**

I understand the impulse to bill him for the rescue, but I have to disagree. I think rescuing people is the core mission of the USCG, even very stupid people and would not want to set the precedent that the USCG charges for rescues: I hate the idea of people in danger perhaps not radioing for help for fear of ruinous financial penalties later.

At most if it was clear negligence I am sure he could be brought up on some kind of negligent boating charges. I don't know enough about how that works but I am sure there is something.

**Frazzled**

Hordini wrote:
My concern is it would eventually be used to charge people in need of a legitimate first-time rescue an exorbitant amount of money.

Hey you have to pay for ambulance rides to the ER.

I'd charge him all right.

**Ouze**

Ambulance rides come from private corporations though, yes?

**Platuan4th**

Frazzled wrote:
Hordini wrote:
My concern is it would eventually be used to charge people in need of a legitimate first-time rescue an exorbitant amount of money.

Hey you have to pay for ambulance rides to the ER.

I'd charge him all right.

The vast majority of ambulance services aren't paid for out of the military budget, either.

**whembly**

Ouze wrote:
Ambulance rides come from private corporations though, yes?

Not always... some are operated by local townships.

**Sigvatr**

Tax money at work, dear gentlemen.