Álvaro de Marichalar y Sáenz de Tejadais a 58-year-old Spanish explorer, member of the Royal Maritime Academy of Spain and of the New York Explorers Club, and a former aviator. After a career as a business executive in the telecoms and satellite communications industry, he has earned a reputation as an explorer for his exploits on jet skis, including crossing the Atlantic in 2002 from Rome to New York. Among the forty successful expeditions he has carried out since 1982, thirteen have won World Records, including jet-skiing from Hong Kong to Tokyo, and Barcelona to Odessa.

 

Several issues will be highlighted throughout this incredible journey by Álvaro aboard NUMANCIA: "I want to alert the widest audience possible by denouncing plastic contamination at sea, illegal fishing and trafficking in human beings,"explains the explorer with that light burning in his eyes that reflects the passion of commitment.

 

Although backed by forty expeditions on his funny "petit navire" Álvaro de Marichalar is no less humble when faced with the Ocean. He knows that he sails in a hostile environment, in conditions where life sometimes depends on so little. "Alone aboard a boat like this, you're always afraid, especially in the dark. But hope holds up,"says Álvaro. "Hope filled with passion, motivation, determination and faith. This is what should always inspire our lives, at sea and on shore!"

 

Until OceanoScientific’s engagement alongside Álvaro de Marichalar as part of his 1519WorldTour2019 expedition, the initiatives taken by the philanthropic association have focused on zero-CO2 expeditions by sail.

 

However, although Álvaro is setting sail from France using a petrol engine with very low CO2 emissions – the lowest rate on the jet ski market – if everything goes well on a technical side,  he will be sailing in a few weeks either fueled with liquid gas or bioethanol, his aim being to use zero-CO2 hydrogen energy as soon as possible. A first in the field.

 

This (small) exception to OceanoScientific's rule is nonetheless in line with the association's aim to federate initiatives of various kinds with a common purpose: to pass on a powerful message in favor of the preservation of the Ocean, and to perpetuate the Spirit of Adventure, as Yvan Griboval said:

 

"What I like and respect in Álvaro is first of all his determination, his unwavering will, his total commitment to whatever he undertakes and succeeds on the sea. He is an exceptional sailor even if his watercraft looks more like a toy boat than an ocean-going vessel, let's face it. Of course, it will produce a little CO2 while sailing the seas. So what? Compared with what he passes on at each port call in terms of passion, of faith in our ability to surpass ourselves, testifying to the beauty and the usefulness of the Ocean, that small amount of CO2 will be largely compensated! Álvaro has that folly that drives us all when we cast off to do what most landlubbers would consider to be impossible. We are members of the same family who have the Ocean as foster mother for our dreams. If only for that we must help one other..."

 

From Gibraltar to the Caribbean, Álvaro de Marichalar will be escorted and assisted by François Fiat's M/Y YERSIN, captained by Jean Dumarais. The 76.60-meter Explorer Superyacht built by Chantiers Piriou served for the first ever scientific campaigns of the Explorations de Monaco initiated by Sovereign Prince Albert II of Monaco in 2017-18. On route from Cape Verde to Martinique, the vessel was used to study the proliferation of Sargassum algae on the one hand and surface contaminants on the other, with the scientists on board from the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) in Marseille and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), also located in Marseille.

 

The current expedition, taking place five hundred years after the first Tour of the World setting out from and returning to Seville, serves to recall the incredible story of Juan Sebastián de Elcano and Fernand de Magellan. They were the first to round South America, not by clearing Cape Horn, but by wending their way into an inhospitable channel where the wind usually blows in a storm with gusts of extreme violence, the williwaws. Ever since, the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has been called the Strait of Magellan.

 

They were therefore the first to enter the immense Pacific Ocean, the largest in the world. Sadly, Fernand de Magellan was to be killed with a poisoned arrow on the island of Mactan (Philippines) on 27 April 1521.

 

The honor and the fidelity to the King Charles I of Spain, as well as the affinity and great respect he had for Fernand de Magellan incited Juan Sebastián de Elcano to continue sailing beyond the Philippines to the Spice Islands. He considered it his duty to loop the loop, to continue the long route undertaken until he reached the departure point: Sanlúcar de Barrameda, the seaportof Seville, north of Cadiz, on 6 September 1522. On board, he was accompanied by the only 18 survivors of the 237 sailors who left from the same port on 20 September 1519, after leaving Seville on August 10. The spices load they brought back did cover the cost if the journey. The king of Spain did recognize  Juan Sebastián de Elcano's achievement and rewarded him.

 

Five ships had sailed from the Spanish Atlantic coasts: the TRINIDAD, the flagship captained by Fernand de Magellan himself; the SAN ANTONIO captained by Juan de Cartagena, the CONCEPCIÓN captained by Gaspar de Quesada, the SANTIAGO captained by Juan Serrano and the VICTORIA captained by Luis de Mendoza, with Juan Sebastián de Elcano as chief mate.

 

Only the VICTORIA, a 28-meter three-masted carrack, would return safely, under the command of the extraordinary Juan Sebastián de Elcano to whom Álvaro de Marichalar pays tribute today. The Spanish Basque sailor-explorer had achieved the first circumnavigation of the Globe, between 1519 and 1522.

 

The route was laid out. All that now remains is for Álvaro to achieve his own challenge, driven by his passion, his Faith in God and his humility; under the benevolent protection of Geneviève Fiat. To be sure, Geneviève keeps watch on high over those zany seafarers who take up such extraordinary challenges to perpetuate the Spirit of Adventure, to make dreams come true. A superb example of courage and willpower in which the OceanoScientific association is proud to play a modest part. Godspeed and fair winds to NUMANCIA and to our friend Álvaro! ...