A boating stunt saw Sir Richard Branson successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean and beat the world record. When the furor of that feat naturally died down in a few years, Branson tried something more adventurous. He set his sights on a dangerous pursuit of crossing the ocean, this time not on a boat but a hot air balloon, and was determined to win. Three such crossings were previously made but in helium balloons. As planned, Branson and Lindstrand victoriously achieved the ocean-crossing record in a hot air balloon. They cruised for 37 hours in a record-breaking distance of 2,900 miles.