Oceans by Cars

They cross the Atlantic in a floating car

In 1999, this man and his friend spent 119 days in a floating car and crossed the Atlantic

There are those who choose to experiment and undertake more adventurous trips, such as navigating the sea with a car.

Marco Amoretti and his friend Marcolino De Candia became the first people to cross the Atlantic Ocean with the help of a floating car.

Marco’s father, Giorgio, was the one who came up with such a crazy idea. A year before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he devised a “marine car” and had a dream of crossing the ocean with it.

However, he was too ill to complete the trip, so his three sons and Marcolino set out to make his dream come true.

Film Docu-Fiction Project- Cros the Ocean by Car from Mobile Art on Vimeo.

On May 4, 1999, the four young men set sail from the Canary Islands to reach the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. They used a wrecked Volkswagen Passat and a floating polyurethane-filled Ford Taunus to complete the trip.

The driver and passenger compartment was arranged as a shelter. On top of the car, they had a rubber boat with a hole in the middle that allowed getting on and off the car

However, Marco’s two brothers were unable to complete the journey and had to go home due to severe seasickness. But this did not discourage the two friends who were sure they could sail across the ocean.

The journey was not easy. The couple were frequently hit by storms and were also hit by a typhoon. They also lost all contact with the world when their satellite phone broke down.

However, they defied all odds and completed the journey. After 4 long and exhausting months in their “marine cars”, the two travelers reached their 3,000-mile-long destination and sailed to the shores of the Caribbean island.

The two men became the first people to cross the Atlantic Ocean with a floating car. “Now I am proud because I showed the world that my father’s dream was not an impossible dream.”

“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 got to Martinique, I found out that he had died,” Marco said.