With his unusual adventure, Rüdiger Koch plans to continue for two more months, this 59-year-old aerospace engineer wants to set a new world record to demonstrate that we can live in total immersion. “We should move to the ocean. It’s much more peaceful down here, it’s not like life in the city, you can hear the waves” and the slight “sound of the fish,” Mr. Koch told AFP, who visited him on his place of voluntary confinement.
It has 30 m2 of living space with bed, toilet, television, computer, exercise bike and fans. The internet connection is established via satellite link and solar panels on the surface provide electricity. It has a backup generator, but no shower. “I wake up at six o’clock, listen to the news, do a little work and then have breakfast and do everyday tasks,” says Koch.
Return to the open air on January 24
On a small table sits a copy of his bedside book, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne. Admirer of Captain Nemo’s adventure, Rüdiger Koch began his challenge on September 26 and plans to return to the open air on January 24, thus beating the record for the longest immersion without depressurization, held by the American Joseph Dituri, who stayed 100 days in a cabin submerged in a Florida lake. Two digital clocks tell him how much time has already passed, and how much time remains to win his bet.
The underwater capsule is attached to a house perched on a metal cylinder above the waters, 15 minutes by boat from the coast of Puerto Lindo, on the north coast of Panama. It is via a narrow spiral staircase in the hollow of the cylinder that one reaches the underwater capsule at a depth of 11 meters, through which Mr. Koch collects his meals.
Turquoise light
“It’s not particularly difficult, I don’t suffer from anything except sometimes the desire to go swimming,” he says, pointing to the circular windows of his capsule from which a turquoise light comes and through which we can see fish of all sizes and colors. Rüdiger Koch ensures that the material of the underwater capsule is environmentally friendly, its exterior walls making it possible to accommodate corals and shelter fish.
Four cameras film him constantly to ensure his state of health and that he does not return to the surface. Installed in the house above, Israeli security expert Eial Berja controls his movements from a screen. “We faced the wind, the rain and the waves, at times we saw nothing, alone in the middle of the ocean,” says Mr. Berja, explaining that a storm almost put an end to the project a few years ago. days.
“A good shower”
Besides the press, the only visits are those of a doctor, his two children and his Thai wife. “We embarked on this quest for Guinness World Records to show the world that we can innovate and live underwater,” Canadian Grant Romundt, associate of Rüdiger Koch with whom he founded a company and built three houses on the water in this area of the Panamanian Caribbean.
Halfway through, the engineer knows exactly what he will do first once he leaves his hermitage: “I’m going to take a good shower, at least for an hour.”
(afp)
