Elderly Frenchman sets sail across the Atlantic – in a barrel
A 71-year-old Frenchman has set off across the Atlantic Ocean in a large orange barrel, hoping to float to the Caribbean by the end of March.
Jean-Jacques Savin left the Canary Islands, off the coast of west Africa, on Wednesday, in a sophisticated barrel-shaped capsule he spent months crafting.
He is traveling at “two or three kilometers an hour” (one to two miles an hour) and intends to (literally) barrel his way across the ocean with the help of currents alone, he told the AFP news agency in a telephone interview after setting off.
