Frenchman sets sail across Atlantic in a barrel!

"After 122 days and nine hours the meridian positions me in the Caribbean Sea. The crossing is over. Thank you all," Jean-Jacques Savin, 72, posted on his Facebook page early Sunday.

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The Q said:

I think He'll be worried if he were to drift too far north he'd catch the north Atlantic drift and come all the way back again!!

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127th day, Thursday 02th May

RECOVERY POSITION 02/05/19. 17:00 UTC. 127 days 06 hours

3125. NM. 5800 kms

Everything has an end......

Finally, here I am at the end of this adventure, I think I will have to wait several days to realize...
These last 5 days have been a nightmare, where I touched the abysses of our administration... I no longer plunged into this big blue but into a maze of negotiations with 3-page emails.... And I after playing Ping-Pong with Eole, that was Rolland Garros.
It was enough that before I lost my mind, I sent a letter to the American Coast Guard who were watching me so that a few hours later I had a choice between 3 Ships...
The case is closed, thank you Americans, the others can giggle while surfing on keyboards....

My big surprise was in the night, this Cargo that revolves around us, everyone flashes and then slowly approaches, I don't understand their English, the whole crew is there: 20 people! I ask if it is possible for me to have chocolate and the answer is: Yes, tie the rope.
Okay, I'm executing.... And there, the barrel lifts up and hits the wall of Goliath (it is damaged...) Fortunately I have a knife fixed on the roof, the fixing point is on the handrail at the front, it will not hold...
The barrel takes a vertical position without hesitation I cut the hemp 5 cm in diameter and we dive back....
10 meters above my head, it's screaming, I don't understand anything, I just stick to chocolate.
We resume our ride that we are well on the waves....
I will learn in the morning that they had been kind enough to agree to take us back to Rotterdam...

It's blowing very hard, we're making 2.2 knots or 4 km/h, the surfing is going on. My friend Pierre who coordinates from Paris, my recovery tells me that tonight the Tanker will be on site at 10pm. UTC. =. 24 H France!
Preparation of some things for the landing, the day is quiet.
I enjoy these last moments and look at these 2 companions who for 10 days have been under our protection...
It is at the moment when I come to the table to taste a cooked net of harpooned dolphinfish the day before that I hear a noise of engine and through the window, 2 hours in advance: It is there, magnificent, its orange shell merges with the declining sunshine....
But what a monster, over there at the top it's moving I see the arm of the crane rotating, already it reassures me, it's not a vine arbor where the barrel would have grated all along the hull....
I am sent a hawser (rope) that I attach the mooring lines that are ready. I wait for the hook, the hull is 3 meters away, we go up and down on the waves that run along the steel.
It was then that the stern mooring line around the keel (on Lucien's advice) was released. Obviously above nobody understands when I ask to be released and I have to reposition this underwater lifting point...
I dive, my 2 companions arrive immediately, no there is no departure gift....
The mooring line is replaced with a "broken string under traction" because there is the platform and the rungs of the ladder that bother and all the weight is in this keel, finally I go up!
We drifted, we're in the back of the tanker.

We were on starboard; we're going to port....
Ok we start again the handling, the crane rotates, the hooks go down and we like a yo-yo along the hull, the hook at 1 meter and gives me fears: it is huge!
If we are below when a wave lifts us, it is the bubble or a solar panel or both that burst, everything happens quickly and correctly, the moorings stretch, we rise in the air; a sensation takes me back one last time in the deep blue and say goodbye to these 2 innocent people who have not understood anything...
And for my great pleasure, I let myself go for a second where I only belong to the air and then here I am again in my mother's womb, back to the fetus state....
At the surface, my companion sways under the gusts of wind he is well balanced, up there at 15 meters, it is not even a walnut shell but a hazelnut...
A buoy arrives, the ship advances slowly, a rope ladder is deployed too short of 1 meter, taking advantage of a wave, I manage to catch it and slowly goes up, goodbye salt water, you have brought me a lot...
The first steps were difficult, a feeling of being more than drunk, bare-chested in shorts, 2 men on each side support me and help me climb the 5 floors to reach the Captain on the bridge.
It was the hot soapy shower, for 127 days, a fluorescent combination and then I was offered a meal at my wish, I ask if possible 2 eggs in the dish...
Always accompanied, we will visit my companion very well established... he rests, we rest...
Arrival Sunday at S-Eustache at 01:00 in the morning!
As long as we are not in Martinique, I will be happy to continue to give you news of this odyssey!
Thank you and I will finish dedicating myself to my book for which we are looking for a title: Help me! Help me!!
I didn't think in January 2018 that my dream would arouse so many curiosities...
Your messages have brought me a lot of emotions and I kiss you all!

Jean-Jacques SAVIN. Coordinates: (WGS84) 21.48756, -64.62607

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