Italian Adventurers Cross Atlantic in Floating Cars

In May 1999 two Italian citizens launched a trans‑Atlantic voyage from the Canary Islands using second‑hand cars that were extensively modified with metal keels, masts, satellite communications and polyurethane foam for buoyancy. Four participants set out, but adverse currents forced the evacuation of two crew members by helicopter. Marco Amoretti and Marco De Candia continued alone, coping with severe technical failures, including a flooded solar‑powered satellite phone that left families unaware of their location for six weeks. During this period the project’s ideologue, activist Giorgio Amoretti, died.

The pair repaired the craft by reconnecting solar panels and, after about four months at sea, reached the Caribbean. Authorities in Martinique warned of tropical storms, but the crew declined preventive evacuation; the storm damaged the improvised vessels yet the buoyancy held. On 31 August 1999 they arrived at Tartane after 119 days of continuous navigation, abandoned the floating cars on the island, and later returned to Europe without completing the planned leg to New York. Maritime experts have since examined the effectiveness of the adaptations used in this unconventional Atlantic crossing.