POINTE-A-PITRE, Guadeloupe -- A Briton who washed ashore on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe claimed he crossed the Atlantic in a barrel -- the smallest vessel to ever make the voyage -- and he did it without a compass.
'I knew I had to hit somewhere some land -- I wasn't really bothered which,' Eric Peter said in a telephone interview from a police station in the eastern Guadeloupe town of Saint Francois.
The Briton arrived penniless Tuesday, dressed in jeans, and has been relying on the hospitality of police and local residents who have given him housing and local French cuisine.
Peter, 43, said his 5-foot-11-inch barrel was the smallest vessel ever to cross the Atlantic, besting the 1968 record set by the 5-foot-11 -inch one-man sailboat named 'April Fool.'
Hugo Vihlen of the United States crossed the Atlantic from Casablanca to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. in the April Fool in 85 days.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of Peter's claim of a 46-day crossing from the Canary Islands without a compass.
Peter and his unusual craft were tossed onto shore Tuesday in Saint Francois, the easternmost town of the butterfly-shaped Caribbean island, and were found by a farmer passing by in his tractor.
Police said he was suffering from dehydration but otherwise was healthy on his arrival on Guadelupe, 390 miles east of Puerto Rico.
He had less than a half a quart of drinking water left aboard 'Tonicki,' as he dubbed the custom-made barrel. He collected drinking water during a five-day squall.
Departing Las Palmas on the Canary Islands last Dec. 24 in the barrel, outfitted with a rudder, keel and sail, Peter said he survived on a diet of almonds, Spanish olive oil, bran and a pint of water daily.
The adventurer said he decided to make the crossing two years ago when he ran out of food on a catamaran making a trans-Atlantic crossing to Barbados.
'I turned to the skipper and I said, I can do this easier in a barrel,' Peter said. 'I came off the cat and I thought, it's never been done before in a barrel, what a terrific publicity stunt.'
Peter said he spent two years working on the barrel, mainly by himself, but said he wished he spent more time padding the inside of the tiny vessel that served as his home for 46 days.
At night Peter said he was forced to scrunch his 5-foot-11-inch frame inside the barrel and 'got chucked around a lot -- my hips are all bruised.'
