A Frenchman has set off to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a barrel-shaped orange capsule, using ocean currents alone to propel him. Jean-Jacques Savin, 71, left El Hierro in Spain's Canary Islands and hopes to reach the Caribbean in as little as three months. His reinforced capsule contains a sleeping bunk, kitchen and storage. He will drop markers along the way to help oceanographers study Atlantic currents.
Updates on the journey are being posted on a Facebook page and the latest message said the barrel was "behaving well".
In a telephone interview with AFP news agency, he said: "The weather is great. I've got a swell of one metre (3ft) and I'm moving at 2-3km/h... I've got favourable winds forecast until Sunday."
Mr Savin is a former military paratrooper and has also worked as a park ranger and a pilot. He believes ocean currents alone will carry his resin-coated plywood vessel about 4,500km (2,800 miles) to the Caribbean.
The barrel is 3m long and 2.10m wide with six square metres of living space. There is a porthole in the floor through which Mr Savin can watch passing fish. The capsule has been built to resist waves and potential attacks by orca whales. A solar panel generates power for communications and GPS positioning.
His budget of €60,000 (£54,000; $68,000) was largely raised through crowdfunding.
"Maybe Barbados, although I would really like it to be a French island like Martinique or Guadaloupe," he joked.
"That would be easier for the paperwork and for bringing the barrel back."
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