A 72-year-old adventuresome French pensioner – Jean-Jacques Savin – has successfully floated across the Atlantic in a bright orange, 3m-long plywood barrel he built himself.

Savin set off from the Canary Islands on Boxing Day last year and after 127 days and six hours at sea arrived at the tiny Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean on May 2. During the 2930-mile journey the barrel was slowly pushed west by ocean currents.

The voyage was inspired by a French doctor, Alain Bombard, who in 1952 did a similar solo trip from the Canary Islands to Barbados in an inflatable boat. He’d survived on raw fish and saltwater.

Despite his age, it seems Savin has had plenty of experience living in deprived conditions – he is a former military paratrooper and has previously crossed the Atlantic four times (by yacht), has ascended Mont Blanc in 2015 and has swum across France’s Arcachon Bay four times.