A French adventurer crossed the Atlantic in a drifting barrel

French adventurer Jean-Jacques Savin arrived early Thursday morning on the Caribbean island of Martinique, the final destination of a four-month trip to the Atlantic aboard small barrel-shaped boat powered only by ocean currents.

"It was an exciting trip but also very risky," said the 72-year-old ex-soldier after kissing his partner, Josyane, who was waiting at the port of Fort-de-France.

Savin left his barrel last Friday after 127 days and 5 800 km of sea and embarked in an oil tanker that led him to the Dutch island of St. Eustache in the Caribbean.

After a short break in St. Eustache, the adventurer and his barrel were transferred to Martinique by a French tugboat.

At the port of Martinique, he was also received by one of his friends, Pierre Galzot. "It's the Jean-Jacques Savin I've known for 40 years, an extremely resilient man, very well trained and, frankly, he's not too thin," said Galzot, a physician by profession, " but he recommended "friend who went to the hospital for a" complete checkup ".

During his trip, the adventurer lost 4 pounds, one per month. On board his capsule 3 meters long, with a width of 2.10 meters, he had to fend for himself in a living space of 6 m2.

This exparacaidista soldier left on December 26 from the Spanish island of El Hierro, in the Canary Islands, to cross the Atlantic with the unique force of the currents.

The pbadionate sailor Alain Bombard, who crossed the Atlantic only in 1952 on an inflatable boat, said he had filled his offer to cross the ocean after entering the Caribbean Sea on 27 April.