In 1999, Marco Amoretti and his friend, Marco De Candia, became the first people to cross the Atlantic in a floating car – after they spent 119 days at sea, travelling the 5,000 kilometers between the Canary Islands and the Caribbean.
His father, Giorgio In 1999, aged 67, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and had one dying wish: to cross the Atlantic in a car-boat convoy with his sons.
And so Giorgio and his three sons set to work building four car-boats on their 10 hectare family farm in La Spezia, Liguria, before taking them to the Port of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, where they set off on their odyssey.
By sealing the car off from the water, air remains inside, which keeps the vehicle buoyant.
But the trip began badly - his father's condition suddenly worsened and he had to return home for treatment.
His two brothers went home with him, but Marco stayed on with a friend, Marco De Candia, who was in a separate car-boat, determined to realize his father's dream.
For the next 119 days the two friends would remain at sea, inching across the ocean at 50 nautical miles a day in a converted Ford Taunus and Volkswagen Passat.
“It was a strange experience. There are no odours, no colours, just blue and you were constantly baked by the sun and salty air.
During the journey, the pair passed their time jamming the blues on a guitar and harmonica, eating freeze dried food, swimming, fishing and keeping a ship's log.
The trip was touch and go – they were frequently battered by storms and were pummeled by a typhoon.
The pair survived the inclement weather, but lost contact with the rest of the world for 42 days due to a problem with their satellite phone.
“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 arrived in Martinique I found out he had died.”
Arriving in the Antilles on 31st August was a bittersweet moment for Amoretti, who had realized his late farther's dream and become the first man to cross the Atlantic in a car-boat at the same time •
