At what point should the Coast Guard just say "Give us contact details for your next of kin, then go ahead. YOYO."? It's not like they'll be inundated with Darwin Award wannabe's anywhere near as creative and determined as this guy.
I wonder if someone can do some back-of-the-envelope maths to figure out how much energy (calories) he would need to burn to cross the Atlantic, and therefore how much food he would need. I suspect his voyage isn't possible, even in calm weather, because the amount of energy required increases the amount of food required, which increases the weight, which increases the amount of food... a rocket liftoff problem with no solution.
This guy would have died if he managed to get off shore enough to be past anybody noticing him. He'd be blown along by the winds mostly, being so high and light. So if he didn't plan it well, he has no chance. And by the article, he didn't plan at all.<p>Check out "Naufragé volontaire : Sans vivres sur l'Atlantique" by Alain Bombard[0] if you want to read what a crossing on a small vessel entails.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Bombard" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Bombard</a>
70 miles off shore is international waters. Most countries limit extends 12 miles these days. (excluding resource extraction)<p>Why does the coastguard have jurisdiction? Because it was launched from the USA? At what point is your vehicle a ship? i.e. is a surfboard a ship?
Video documenting a previous attempt: <a href="https://youtu.be/da6_LjiIzXk?si=-b1ygiWXsf1IEWxO" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://youtu.be/da6_LjiIzXk?si=-b1ygiWXsf1IEWxO</a>
> "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," he told WOFL-TV in Orlando in 2021.<p>> "They are in public service, they do it for safety, and they help other people."
I don't understand why they have to intervene besides giving him warnings. At some point, tell him he's not their responsibility anymore if he refuses again and go do something more productive.<p>Countless human hours spent preventing someone from doing something that would harm no one but himself.<p>There are probably good Samaritan laws forcing public officers to provide "help" if they are informed of a situation and no way out of it. A family member that is a cop said to never tell anything in good faith to a cop because then they are forced by law to follow procedures, even if they don't want to otherwise they are the ones getting arrested/fired/suspended.