In the letter, the coast guard had ordered Baluchi not to attempt his journey, noting possible “criminal penalties of up to seven years’ confinement and a $40,000 fine”.
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Baluchi, 44, describes himself as an “ultra-marathon runner” on his website. That rescue cost more than $140,000 in expenses, the agency said.
Gould initially denied Baluchi’s request to enter global waters because it was risky for search and rescue crews should he require another rescue and a waste of public funds to boot.
According to his website, Baluchi planned to follow the 3,500-mile Bermuda triangle, which would also take him to Puerto Rico. The Coast Guard began monitoring his movements and rescued him from the ocean.
The bubble has 36 buoyancy balls on each side and Baluchi was equipped with a life vest containing a water filter, a Global Positioning System tracking device and shark repellent.
Passing boaters said Baluchi was so disoriented, the Miami Herald reports he asked for directions to Bermuda. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, he was saved about 70 nautical miles east of St. Augustine, Florida during a previous attempt to run across the Caribbean in 2014.
He was thought to be en route to Bermuda.
The Coast Guard added that the voyage was ended because he “violated a USCG order” not to go without a safety boat.
The Coast Guard stopped him anyway.
Baluchi said he spent five months in a federal detention center after border agents confronted Baluchi in the Arizona desert in 2002.
“I see some helicopter coming”, Baluchi said.
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Baluchi, an Iranian exile, was granted asylum in the United States more than a decade ago after being arrested in Iran for so-called “pro-Western and anti-Islamic activities”, according to the Associated Press. “I want peace. I’m a lover, not a fighter”, he said Friday to the Sun Sentinel in Florida.
