Diplomatic World_69

ALVARO DE MARICHALAR SAENZ DE TEJADA
IT IS BETTER FOR OUR OWN SURVIVAL
TO RESPECT NATURE
Álvaro de Marichalar Sáenz de Tejada wears many hats: He is a
pioneer and entrepreneur in telecommunications but also travels
the sea. On his current trip around the globe in a small 11-foot
dolphin-size vessel he uses every opportunity to lecture to raise
awareness of the burning issues to protect our planet and the
oceans. Dieter Brockmeyer, Co-founder of Diplomatic World
Institute, where he serves as Director for Innovation, talked to
him about his mission and his message to the world.
YOU ARE IN MEXICO NOW, WHAT PART OF YOUR
WORLD JOURNEY IS THIS?
I arrived in Mexico several weeks ago. I had to repair my little
vessel in Texas, to change the engine. It took me a long time
since I must cross to Russia from Alaska in the summertime.
Therefore, I have plenty of time to arrive next June. That’s why
I am travelling slowly. I am trying to give as many lectures as
possible at the different ports, because one of the purposes
of my expedition is to let people know what is going on in the
ocean and in the areas of influence of the ports I stop by. I am
very happy to spend more time here in Mexico which I really,
really love. It is very much linked with Spain through history.
Through mentality too.
WHEN DID YOU START YOUR JOURNEY?
My journey started in in 2019. On the historical date, Ferdinand
of Magellan started his journey back in 1519. I was celebrating
the fifth centennial of the first circumnavigation around the world.
It was the most important expedition ever accomplished by
humankind from the geographical point of view, because this
first circumnavigation proved empirically that our world is round.
I started my journey on the same day, at the same venue, even
the time. As I said, as they did 500 years ago. I started August
10, 2019, from Seville, in Southern Spain.
SEVILLE IS NOT A COAST TOWN, THOUGH
The city was a very important hub of the Spanish Empire for 350
years. I started there, and I decided to circumnavigate Spain,
Portugal and France first with the purpose of honouring the origin
of Ferdinand Magellan, who was the commander of the expedition
500 years ago. He was a born Portuguese who later became
a Spaniard since the Spanish King sponsored his expedition,
what the Portuguese king had declined before. My objective
was to honour his Portuguese origins and to acknowledge
Portuguese sailors like Vasco de Gama or Henry the Sailor. I think
we Europeans should know about it and start building Europe on
it. This is our background, our roots. And for that, it is important
to know what happened 500 years ago, 300 years ago, even
1,000 and 2,000 years ago with the Roman Empire, so it is very
important because our European roots began 2,000 years ago.
Back to my journey: I navigated along southern Spain, Portugal,
Monaco and all the Mediterranean (French and Spanish) coastline
to Gibraltar, from where I began to cross the Atlantic ocean
on December 10, 2019.
All the way to the Caribbean, I had a support boat, an 80-meter
long hybrid explorer boat called “Yes Sir”, owned by my friend
Francois Fiat. It is a French-built explorer, an electrically propelled
hybrid. We arrived on Christmas Day, on December 25.
From there, I carried on, totally alone again, to Miami. Because of
the pandemic, the US closed their borders. I stayed three months
in Miami. I then decided to go back to Europe where I spent the
next 20 months. Last February I came back to Miami, and
I continued our expedition on February 19.
WHEN YOU CROSSED THE ATLANTIC YOU HAD A
SUPPORT BOAT ALONGSIDE. I GUESS THIS WAS
FOR SECURITY REASONS?
As I said, I travel completely alone. No support boats. No security
reasons, no support from land. I am m totally alone. Only at
the Atlantic from Gibraltar to the Caribbean I had support, mainly
for refilling. 200 miles is my small vessel’s maximum range. The
distance from Gibraltar was 3,700 nautical miles. When I have a
support boat, I travel two hours ahead. I sleep on my little vessel
waiting for the support boat to come to my position and refuel on
the move. The only purpose is logistics.
YOU ALREADY MENTIONED THE LECTURES AS
YOU GO. YOUR TRIPS ARE ALSO FOR CREATING
AWARENESS FOR OUR PLANET?
The main reason to do these kinds of journeys is to learn from
the ocean to accomplish what I call the interior exploration.
Giving yourself totally in the hands of God gets you to know
who you are. What are you doing, who created you? What is
the purpose of your existence? You meditate because you have
no other choice. I have been doing that for 14 years now. You
understand why you should not spend your life looking at the TV,
looking at other people’s movies. You produce your own movie
because you understand that time in your life is very limited.
From this point of view, then you can begin to explore the
horizon, what is going on in other people’s lives and what is
going on with nature. You begin to respect others from your own
knowledge and respect. The purpose of the expedition is to set
big campaigns to create awareness for the ocean’s problems.
The major problems in the ocean are plastic pollution, oil spills
and overfishing. 70 percent of oil spilling in the ocean comes
from unidentified big oil tankers cleaning their tanks before they
arrive at the ports to refuel. These big accidents we witnessed
in Alaska only make up 30 percent of the oil spills in the ocean.
I am m also filming human trafficking and piracy. The force of
nature is impossible to contain. It is better for our own survival to
respect nature.
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