Apparently he made it to the Cape Verde Islands on the sea--and there was some substantial corrosion damage to the Land Rover and structural damage to the pontoon setup, even at that point. Looks like only a few hundred miles off the Cape Verde until he put out the Pan Pan, and he was picked up by a merchant ship. Another vessel (looks like oil rig support vessel) picked up the sea going Land Cruiser, and took it to Rio de Janiero. If he is able to drive it all of the way to Alaska--and then cross the Bering Sea, he may make the "around the world--but it will not be under his own power…. Joe nailed it with land bound designs. When you put out distress calls, you begin to put others at risk.
His speed under power on the water is only about 5 knots (120 nautical miles a day)--he claims most water born hops are only 5 days--yet he was going from the Cape Verde to Brazil, a distance of 1500 miles, or about 12 days if he was really able to make 120 miles a day. He got in trouble in far less distance than that….
As for people following their dreams--great as long as they have solid plans and realistic expectations. This guy has already had two ships divert to first pick him up, and then to pick up the rig he was "driving". If there had not been ships to divert--he probably would have not made it across the Atlantic. I suspect if he had started off from the US, it would have been a "manifest unsafe voyage"…. I have seen a few of these types of contraptions built by people who did not know the sea--and none of them ended well.
