A 71-year-old Frenchman has departed on a journey across the Atlantic in a specially designed barrel capsule, which will use ocean currents alone to propel him across the sea.

Jean-Jacques Savin, a former paratrooper, set off from El Hierro in Spain’s Canary Islands on Wednesday and is aiming to complete his 4,500km (2,800 miles) journey to the Caribbean in about three months.

Savin will drop markers from his three-metre (10ft) long, 2.1-metre wide resin-coated plywood capsule along the trip to assist oceanographers in their study of currents in the Atlantic Ocean.

The barrel is equipped with a kitchen area and a mattress with straps to keep him from being tossed about by rough seas.