Two Floating Cars
When it comes to covering stories about travel, exploration, and outdoor adventure, you occasionally come across one that is truly unique and remarkable. Such is the case with the tale of Marco Amoretti and his friend Marcolino De Candia, who twenty years ago embarked on a strange, inspiring, and wild adventure .
The two men crossed the Atlantic Ocean together, which in and of itself is an impressive feat. But the fact that they did it using two floating cars just makes the entire story that much more fascinating.
You can read all about this wild tale in this article from the South China Morning Post. But in a nutshell, way back in 1999, Marco’s father Giorgio was diagnosed with cancer and given just three to six months to live. All his life, Giorgio had dreamed of sailing across the Atlantic, finding freedom and adventure out on the ocean. But for a variety of reasons, he was never able to quite make that dream happen. Now, with his health quickly failing, it was time to make the journey a reality.
Inspired by their father’s dream, Marco and his two brother’s set the wheels in motion (Ha!) to make the expedition happen. They chose two cars to serve as their boats, sealed the interiors, mounted sails on them, and even installed GPS and radio systems. Those vehicles were then sent to the Canary Islands, which is where they would set off for the Caribbean. Unfortunately, Giorgio was too ill to join his sons, so Marco’s friend Marcolino joined the team instead.
In early 2000, the cars were placed in the water and began the voyage. Ten days in however, Marco’s two brothers felt that the level of danger involved with the crossing was too high, so they aborted their plans and called for a help from the coast guard. That left Marco and Marcolino to continue on. It would take them 119 days to sail across the Atlantic, eventually arriving in Martinique. While he was at sea, Marco’s father passed away, although he lived long enough to know that his son was living a grand adventure.
After arriving in the Caribbean, the original idea was to continue sailing on to Cuba, then the U.S. Ultimately, Marco and his friend had hoped to travel all the way to New York City before going back to Italy. But they ended up spending a month in Martinique then flew home, never to return or continue. They had also thought about writing a book about the adventure, but that too fell by the wayside.
Now, 20 years on, Marco is considering repeating the journey and possibly seeing it through to the end. He is also back to working on the book and is pressing ahead with a potential documentary. He now seems to greatly regret abandoning those plans so many years ago, but hasn’t given up on the dream altogether.
It’s a pretty interesting story and if you want to get more insight into this odd and inspiring journey, check out the full article here.
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