By akademiotoelektronik, 20/06/2022

The Atlantic at the Ramer: the 75-year-old backpacker Jean-Jacques Savin found dead in his canoe

Bordeaux - Girondin Jean -Jacques Savin, 75, who was trying to cross the Atlantic on the train and whose relatives were without news since Friday, was found dead on Saturday in his canoe, off the coast of the Azores.

The "corps of Jean-Jacques was found lifeless inside the cabin of his canoe the daring," the team of volunteers who followed the septuagenarian adventurer, left in a statement to AFPJanuary 1 of Portugal.

The "Portuguese maritime security had located yesterday (Friday) the boat unfortunately returned off the Azores. A diver was able to descend and visit the boat this Saturday", specifies the text stressing that "the ocean this time was moreStrong that our friend, he who loved navigation and the sea so much ".

The team also indicates that she does not yet know the exact circumstances of the drama ".

The navigator, who had made himself known by crossing the Atlantic in a barrel in 2019, pushed by the winds and the currents, aroused the concern of his relatives since Friday morning.

"Unfortunately, since 00:34 yesterday morning (Friday), we no longer have any contact or demonstration on his part," said AFP for members of his team on Saturday morning.According to them, he had triggered his two distress beacons, "indicating being +in great difficulty +".

During the last contacts, Jean-Jacques Savin was north of Madeira, offshore, and was traveling to the small island of Ponta Delgada, in the Azores archipelago, to repair.

Because shortly after his departure from Sagres (south of Portugal) on January 1, this great sportsman, "adventurer at heart", had been quickly confused due to bad winds.His initial journey had thus been extended by 900 km and then had to encounter serious energy and communication problems.

- "Not in danger!" -

On Wednesday, on his Facebook page, Jean-Jacques Savin mentioned the "strong swell and the wind strength", adding that he was forced to "use manual" his)."It costs me physical energy. Rest assured, I'm not in danger!", He wrote.

Living in Arès, on the Arcachon basin, he intended to cross the Atlantic on the train and become "the dean of the Atlantic", "a way of taunting old age".

"He was an extraordinary, atypical man," recalls the mayor of Arès, Xavier Daney, who also speaks of an "extraordinary backpacker, a well -struck character, with character, as we can be on theArcachon basin. We are sea peasants, a little earthy and a little sailor. He was a pure strain areas, his father was oyster farmer. "

"It is not necessary to think that it was the adventure of too much," he said, expressing a "very strong thought for his daughter Manon, his partner Jackie and the whole team of volunteers".

Jean-Jacques Savin had celebrated his 75th birthday on January 14 aboard his canoe eight meters long, 1.70 m wide and equipped with two cabins and a train station.

On board, 300 kg of equipment, including lyophilized food, a heating point, a hear rifle for fishing, an electric desalinizer and a manual, its mandolin, champagne, Sauternes and foie gras to celebrate itsanniversary.

"I go on vacation to the open sea, I take three months of vacation," he had little before his departure.

In 2019, this former parachutist soldier, thin and muscular, had spent more than four months in a barrel -shaped boat three meters long and 2.10 m in diameter.He had thus crossed the Atlantic alone, pushed by the winds and the currents.

This former private and conservative pilot of national park in Africa had thus joined the Antilles, which he hoped to join at the train again.

He had signed a book, "127 days drifting, the Atlantic in a barrel", on his adventure which had also been followed by 23,000 people on Facebook.

"I'm going to row eight hours a day, and when it will blow hard, I lock myself," he said before starting his journey.