Jean-Jacques Savin has no engine, no sail, and no paddle. But he has the currents, the winds, some foie gras, and a bottle of red wine ready for his 72nd birthday, which, if all goes to plan, he'll celebrate in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in his reinforced plywood barrel.
Savin, a former French paratrooper, cast off from the Canary Islands on Dec. 26 with plans to cross the Atlantic in his custom-made, orange, 10-foot vessel, relying only on ocean currents and wind to get to the Caribbean.
