Florida man’s walk on water ends short of goal to reach NYC

BUNNELL, Fla. (AP) — A man in a cylindrical floating contraption washed ashore in Florida Saturday in an apparent attempt to walk on water to New York.

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office reported that the man left St. Augustine in the vessel with the goal of reaching New York. The department posted photos of the vessel on Facebook.

WOFL-TV in Orlando reported the man was trying to raise money for charity.

“My goal is to not only raise money for homeless people, raise money for the Coast Guard, raise money for the police department, raise money for the fire department. They are in public service, they do it for safety and they help other people,” Reza Baluchi told the station.

It wasn’t Baluchi’s first time trying to cross Atlantic waters in a flotation device. In 2014, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued him while he tried to reach Bermuda from Florida in a homemade “hyrdo pod.”