Man rescued from floating bubble (tries to go across ocean to Bermuda 1000 miles)

[Waterwitch]

I am sure I am not alone in scanning this forum daily for the next harebrained scheme of a design which tends to turn into an epic thread for it's entertainment value.
Got to wonder how many bottles of water and protein bars he managed to stow inside his giant hamster wheel to make it 4 days and 70 miles off shore on his way to Bermuda from Florida.

http://www.uscgnews.com/go/doc/4007/2371574/

 

[Ike]

The man is an idiot. It is 992 miles from St Augustine to Bermuda.

More on the same http://www.people.com/article/man-in-bubble-rescued-coast-guard

"Never Underestimate the power of human stupidity" R. A. Heinlein

 

[Rurudyne]

Hey now, here's something for the doomsday bugout boat thread....

 

[sdowney717]

Man in plastic inflated bubble tries to go across ocean to Bermuda 1000 miles

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29501005

So funny this guy thinks he can walk to Bermuda in inflated bubble.
But the trip wore him out and he was totally disoriented, asking USCG which way to go to Bermuda.

Maybe something like this could be a life raft? where you could walk to shore.

 

[Manie B]

Good grief at first I thought this was an april fools joke or something like that
the guys is nuts

makes the rest of us look normal ?!?!
whatever

 

[JSL]

I hope he is registered for the 2014 Darwin Award. He would certainly be in the running.... if not the winner.

 

[bregalad]

No Darwin Award for him. Because of the Coast Guard's intervention he didn't remove himself from the gene pool.

In fairness to him... Once in the Gulf Stream the currents and winds might well have taken him, or his remains, to Ireland..... and Darwin Award recognition.

 

[Rurudyne]

He survived, so his Darwin Award disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.

 

[JosephT]

All it would take is a stiff wind to blow that inflatable bubble like a tumbleweed across the desert.



His cause was noble (world peace), but his mode of transport was just not thought out too well.

 

[Ike]

Send him the bill!

 

[JosephT]

More on this guy...

 

[philSweet]

Who knew a device so simple could be that inefficient? By the way, a ball on the water doesn't tumble. It just coasts along. Something to do with the way surface tension is nonlinear. Water resists peeling away from a departing object much more than it is attracted to an oncoming object. Very draggy and it stops a ball from rolling on the surface. He apparently didn't realize he was going to be walking up hill for a thousand miles.

 

[Mr Efficiency]

Bloke had an inflated idea of his capabilities.

 

[Petros]

did he even plan his distance made good for each day? it does not seem possible to get enough food and water into something like that for 1000 mile journey, even if he could push it 1000 miles. Say he can make 20 miles a day (which is optimistic I think), that would be about 50 days (992 miles), over 200 lbs of food and 259 lbs of water perhaps. likely much more provisions would be necessary, 20 miles a day in that thing would be a major effort for just a day or two, let alone for two months.

the guy has done similar stunts, but nothing this large. you would think he would have a better understanding of how long it takes. It says he crossed from Newport to Catalina island in California in such a device, that is only about 26 miles. this would have been 40 times further. It is not like he does not have some basis, but some how he appears to have completely miscalculated on this journy.

 

[Manie B]

The guy is an idiot that knows that he will be rescued, that's the real problem.
Only in America will they throw such huge resources at an idiot. In Africa those resources don't even exist so he would have died in a very short time in the middle of nowhere. Here the locals would have waved him goodbye and then started to drink their corn beer. Life changes when you KNOW there is no safety net and you HAVE to take responsibility for your actions or die.