His team said Saturday that the 70-year-old Frenchman, who has been rowing across the Atlantic since Jan. 1, set off distress flares on Friday and “has not made any contact” since.
Jean-Jacques Savin, who turned 75 on January 14 on his canoe “Audaz”, eight meters long and 1.70 meters wide, left Sagres (southern Portugal) with the goal of becoming “bigger than the Atlantic” and “enjoying old age”.
“Unfortunately, since 12:34 pm yesterday (Friday), we have not communicated or seen you,” his team told AFP.
The team added, “Our concern is as great as you can imagine,” explaining that the adventurer had activated “two distress bombs, which indicates that [para eles] He’s having a lot of difficulty.”
“They are very concerned. Everything was done immediately in coordination with the French, Portuguese and American rescue services at sea,” said Manon, daughter of Jean-Jacques Savin, in a letter to her friends and to AFP.
According to the communications director for the volunteer team, Jean-Jacques Savin was – at the time of the last contact – on the high seas, north of Madeira, heading to the small island of Ponta Delgada, in the Azores archipelago, for repairs. to his boat.
Having been diverted by strong winds and greatly lengthening his planned route, the seventy-year-old encountered serious problems, caused by the failure of electric batteries and solar collectors.
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