At 74 years old, the Girondin Jean-Jacques Savin began this Saturday, December 1, at ten o’clock sharp, his departure for the crossing of the Atlantic. From the port of Sagres, in the south of Portugal, the adventurer will take the road to the Antilles.
In terms of crossing the Atlantic, Jean-Jacques Savin is not at his first attempt. Already in 2019, the septuagenarian had already made the journey … thanks to a drift barrel! And if the adventure may seem unusual, for this Arésian by birth, it raises normality since the latter has already rowed crossings.
So Jean-Jacques Savin wanted to make matters worse, starting from the port of Sagres, at the southwestern tip of Portugal. For the adventurer, no question of entering the Guinness Records, but simply “to make your own confinement without a mask”, the time to “taunt old age”, and to become “the dean of the Atlantic”, according to his own words, reported by AFP.
If all goes as planned, it will celebrate its three quarters of a century on January 14 in the open ocean. This morning, in his luggage, he was also taking a bottle of Champagne, Sauternes and foie gras.
One hundred days of crossing
Military training, the Girondin plans to row six, then eight hours a day, for three and a half months. On board the Audacieux – this is the name he chose for his 8-meter-long canoe – Jean-Jacques Savin embarked on a 7,000-kilometer journey this morning.
With the only strength of his arms, he hopes to be able to rally in Guadeloupe or Martinique, where he had finished his journey in 2019.
To share his trip until the first days of spring, Jean-Jacques Savin will keep (like the previous time) a logbook on his Facebook page. The ideal internet destination to follow this fan of sporting exploits from day to day, and to participate (almost) in real time in the mooring of the anchor, on the Tropics side.