Announced dead this Saturday: Jean-Jacques Savin still wanted, his body was not in the canoe

“The search ended yesterday at the end of the day (Saturday) without it being possible to find the victim”, the Portuguese Navy said in a statement.
Questioned by AFP, a spokeswoman for the navy explained that during the rescue operation the rescuers had had “strong reasons to believe that a body could be found inside” from the cabin of the canoe L’Audacieux.

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After in a barrel, he crossed the Atlantic by oar: the body of the adventurer Jean-Jacques Savin found dead in his canoe

“Confusion”

“There have been confusions that we are currently trying to clear up. We don’t know any more. We are awaiting information from the Portuguese authorities”, indicated for its part the team of the adventurer to AFP in France.
According to the Portuguese Navy press release, the first merchant navy ship to have reached the position from which the alert had started “reported seeing the boat and the navigator in the early hours of Friday January 21, but when he approached the boat he indicated that the man was no longer there”.
The septuagenarian’s canoe was found upside down, as evidenced by a photo released by the Portuguese navy where we see the hull of the boat floating on the surface, then hoisted aboard one of its corvettes.
“One of the merchant vessels collected a waterproof bag which contained the navigator’s identification documents inside”, she said in her press release.
The navigator, who had made himself known by crossing the Atlantic in a barrel in 2019, pushed by the winds and the currents, had aroused the concern of his relatives since Friday morning.
“Unfortunately, since 12:34 a.m. yesterday morning (Friday), we no longer have any contact or any demonstration from him”, members of his team told AFP on Saturday morning. According to them, he had triggered his two distress beacons, “indicating being in great difficulty”.
During the last contacts, Jean-Jacques Savin was north of Madeira, offshore, and was on his way to the island of Ponta Delgada, in the Azores archipelago, to repair.
Because shortly after his departure from Sagres (south of Portugal) on January 1, this great sportsman, “adventurer at heart”, was quickly rerouted due to bad winds. His initial route had thus been extended by 900 km and then he had to encounter serious energy and communication problems.