An adventure runner trying to roll his way across the Atlantic Ocean in a blown-up bubble has been rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard – yet again – after failing to heed government warnings to abandon the 3,500-mile mission.

Two days after Reza Baluchi embarked from Florida’s Pompano Beach in his “hydro pod” on a deep-sea pursuit – to trace the Bermuda Triangle – the crew of a Coast Guard cutter pulled him in Sunday near Fort Pierce.

“This was an inherently unsafe voyage attempt that put the lives of Mr. Baluchi and other mariners in danger,” Capt. Austin Gould, commander of Coast Guard Sector Miami, said in a statement. “This proposed adventure unnecessarily risked the lives of Mr. Baluchi, the maritime public, and our Coast Guard men and women.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard told Baluchi in a letter earlier this month that he was “not authorized to depart” because his homemade vessel and the trip he wanted to take were not safe.

“In November 2014, you attempted this voyage unsuccessfully and ultimately placed an enormous financial burden on the taxpayers to conduct a rescue,” Capt. A.J. Gould wrote in the April 15 letter.

Violating the order, Gould said, could be a crime resulting in up to seven years behind bars and a $40,000 fine.

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In October 2014, Baluchi set out for his first Bermuda Triangle voyage – 1,000 miles to Bermuda, another 1,000 miles to Puerto Rico and then 1,000 miles back to his starting point in Florida. Three days in, the Coast Guard had to airlift him from his inflatable vessel about 70 miles from St. Augustine, Florida, after someone called about a disoriented man in a bubble who was near the Miami coast, asking how to get to Bermuda.

Baluchi has made news in the past while trying to break long-distance running and cycling records, including a six-month run around America’s perimeter and a seven-year bike ride across 55 countries on six continents.

Before his latest Bermuda Triangle attempt, he said he was upset the effort he had put into his mission might be wasted.

“I wanted to do something unique – show children that anything is possible if you want it,” he said. “Why are they doing this to me? This is the freedom I have?”


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