The “bubble runner,” a Florida marathon runner trying to reach Bermuda in an inflatable bubble, was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday for the second time since 2014.
The Coast Guard warned Reza Baluchi not to attempt the journey, but he set out from Pompano Beach on Saturday anyway,
The Associated Press reported.
Rescuers picked him up off the Florida coast Sunday and towed his hydropod to shore.
“This proposed adventure unnecessarily risked the lives of Mr. Baluchi, the maritime public, and our Coast Guard men and women,” Capt. Austin Gould of the Coast Guard
said in a statement. “Additionally, the Coast Guard is obligated to ensure taxpayer money and resources are used efficiently and appropriately.”
Baluchi voluntarily ended his journey after talking with Coast Guard crews, the statement said.
He previously tried to reach Bermuda in October 2014. The stunt and subsequent rescue cost U.S. taxpayers more than $140,000, according to the statement.
On April 15 of this year, the Coast Guard issued a formal letter ordering Baluchi not to embark on his journey again. The letter warned Baluchi that a violation of the order could result in up to seven years in prison and a $40,000 fine.
"I don't know what to do. I don't want to fight with the Coast Guard. I want peace. I'm a lover, not a fighter," Baluchi, 44,
told the Sun Sentinel before setting off on his journey. "I want to find a lawyer to help me. … I don't want a boat to follow me. I know it's dangerous inside the ocean, I don't want to risk other people. It's my choice, my life."
His planned 3,500-mile journey would trace the Bermuda Triangle, taking him from Florida to Bermuda. then to Puerto Rico, then back to Florida,
The Washington Post reported.
Baluchi is an Iranian exile who was granted political asylum in the United States in 2002 after facing persecution for alleged pro-Western sentiments. He has tried to break long-distance running and cycling records in the past, and ran the perimeter of the United States in 2007.
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