Frenchman, 71, to cross the Atlantic - in a barrel

BORDEAUX - A 71-year-old Frenchman set sail across the Atlantic on Wednesday in a barrel-shaped orange capsule, hoping to reach the Caribbean within three months thanks to ocean currents alone.

"The weather is great - I've got a swell of one meter and I'm moving at two or three kilometers an hour," Jean-Jacques Savin told AFP by telephone after setting off from El Hierro in Spain's Canary Islands.

"For the time being my capsule is behaving very, very well and I've got favorable winds forecast until Sunday."