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In 1999, This Man And His Friend Spent 119 Days In A Floating Car And Crossed The Atlantic
When it comes to traveling, the majority of people choose a comfortable type of transportation such as planes, buses, and cars. However, there are those who choose to experiment and take on more adventurous types of traveling, for instance, sailing on the sea with a car. Sounds quite unreal, right? Well, these two weary travelers – Marco Amoretti and his friend Marcolino De Candia, thought otherwise and became the first-ever people who crossed the Atlantic ocean with the help of a floating car!
More info: autonauti.it
Image credits: autonauti
Apparently, it was Marco’s father, Giorgio, who came up with such an insane idea. A year prior to being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Giorgio devised a “sea-auto” and had a dream of crossing the ocean with it.
Image credits: autonauti
However, he was too sick to complete the trip, so his three sons and Marcolino set out to make his dream a reality.
Image credits: autonauti
On May 4th, 1999, the four young men sailed away from the Canary islands to reach the other side of the Atlantic ocean. They used a wrecked Volkswagen Passat and a Ford Taunus filled with buoyant polyurethane to complete the trip.
Image credits: autonauti
“The driver and passenger compartment was arranged as a shelter. On top of the car, we had a rubber boat with a hole in the middle that allowed us to climb in and out of the car”, Marco told the National American Journal Enquirer.
Image credits: autonauti
However, Marco’s two brothers couldn’t complete the trip and had to go home due to severe seasickness. But this didn’t discourage the two friends who remained sure they would be able to sail across the ocean.
Image credits: autonauti
The journey wasn’t easy. The pair was frequently battered by storms and was also pummeled by a typhoon. At one instance, they lost all contact with the world when their satellite phone broke down.
Image credits: autonauti
“When we finally called home again, I kept asking about my father…they didn’t tell us anything so as not to lower our morale, but just before we arrived in Martinique, I found out he had died,” said Marco.
Image credits: autonauti
Yet, they defied all odds and completed the journey. After a long and exhausting 4 months spent in their “sea-autos”, the two travelers reached their 3,000-mile-long destination and sailed to the shores of the Caribbean island.
Image credits: autonauti
The two men became the first people to cross the Atlantic ocean with a floating car. “Now I’m proud because I showed the world that my father’s dream was not an impossible dream.”
Image credits: autonauti
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Watch the video of their journey below
Image credits: autonauti
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What do you think ?
Aahzmandus Pervect 5 years ago
Wouldn't it be so much nicer if they were with their father until the end of his life? They could have done this after, in his honor.
PdeV 5 years ago
This is just part of the story. Their father, Giorgio, rode a scooter in 1954-1958 from Italy north to the arctic circle, then all the way to Cape Town, South Africa, back to Italy, then across the USA, north to Alaska and then to Cape Horn and back to the US. He also toured the Sahara with his (pregnant) partner and toddler son, and parasailed. The dream for the trip across the Atlantic was actually to circumnavigate the world.
Aahzmandus Pervect 5 years ago
Wouldn't it be so much nicer if they were with their father until the end of his life? They could have done this after, in his honor.
PdeV 5 years ago
This is just part of the story. Their father, Giorgio, rode a scooter in 1954-1958 from Italy north to the arctic circle, then all the way to Cape Town, South Africa, back to Italy, then across the USA, north to Alaska and then to Cape Horn and back to the US. He also toured the Sahara with his (pregnant) partner and toddler son, and parasailed. The dream for the trip across the Atlantic was actually to circumnavigate the world.
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