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En route to Cuba on personal watercraft
Spaniard retraces Ponce de Leon's route 500 years ago
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
Spanish businessman ÃÅlvaro de Marichalar was all smiles as he shoved off Stock Island Monday morning on his heavily equipped personal watercraft in the hopes of arriving in Cuba about eight hours later.
The adventurer is marking the 500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon's discovery of Florida by retracing the fellow Spaniard's route via a 2013, 260-horsepower Bombardier personal watercraft (PWC) outfitted with running lights, spotlights, GPS, satellite phones, VHF radios, emergency beacons and four external gas tanks.
Marichalar is perhaps best known -- among those who keep track of these things -- for his 2002 PWC odyssey from Rome to New York.
This trip is also meant to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Spanish explorer and conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Marichalar said.
"It is scary and lonely out there, but you can feel God," the 52-year-old real estate and cellphone mogul said Monday from Cow Key Marina. "The sea is a big cathedral. Not in any religious sense, but in the sense of being in his creation. The stars, the horizon, the sharks -- all of it. You feel how truly weak you are, and it makes you want to be a better person."
Marichalar is on his second leg of the journey, which began when he left Puerto Rico in March for the Dominican Republic. He then motored on to the Turks and Caicos Islands before reaching the Bahamas and finally reaching West Palm Beach before being greeted in April by well-wishers in St. Augustine.
His latest run began in Miami this month. From Cuba, Marichalar will head to Mexico, then Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica before ending in Panama.
It is possible to reach Cuba via PWC, but such travels don't come with hearty recommendation from the Coast Guard.
That organization cited the unpredictable ocean swells and weather of the typically turbulent Gulf Stream -- the powerful ocean current that darts through the Florida Straits -- in October when describing the arrest of two Cuban-born men on PWCs some 30 miles south of Key West whom they suspected of smuggling migrants. The case remains unresolved in the federal court system.
Marichalar's 25-year-old wife, Ekqterine Anikeeva of eastern Russia, sat a few feet from him while he described the pounding waves and politics of a 2006 journey from Hong Kong to Tokyo. The run between China and Taiwan required some political maneuvering from both governments.
The Key West to Cuba run apparently required less preplanning, as Marichalar has visited Cuba before.
Anikeeva, however, couldn't fly from Key West to Cuba, so she was zipping up a wet suit and preparing to join her husband for the run across the Florida Straits. Anikeeva is from the Kamchatka Peninsula region of Russia's far east, and her family worked on boats.
Such blood traits showed when asked if she was apprehensive.
"I'm nervous, but not really," she said smiling. "I want to see sharks. Millions and millions of sharks."
Helping Marichalar -- a 1982 graduate of the University of Miami School of Business -- were Aquatic Watersports and Boat Rentals captains Cody Wright, 21, and Warren Havird, 24. Both young businessmen pitched in and helped Marichalar get his PWC in running order for the trip. They were on hand Monday to see him off safely from Cow Key Channel.
"We really just wanted to help out a fellow seaman, because what goes around comes around," Wright said. "Personally, I want to see him do it -- make it all the way and finish it."
Marichalar thanked both men and said he has seen such kindnesses in many countries among kinsmen of the sea -- particularly in Florida.
"I feel very linked to Key West and Florida, because this territory was Spanish for hundreds of years," he said. "I want to show the links between us through sport, history and adventure."
And with that, Marichalar and Anikeeva fired up the PWC and made their way into the channel. In minutes the little craft reached the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean -- and in a dash they were gone.
alinhardt@keysnews.com
En route to Cuba on personal watercraft
Spaniard retraces Ponce de Leon's route 500 years ago
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
Spanish businessman ÃÅlvaro de Marichalar was all smiles as he shoved off Stock Island Monday morning on his heavily equipped personal watercraft in the hopes of arriving in Cuba about eight hours later.
The adventurer is marking the 500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon's discovery of Florida by retracing the fellow Spaniard's route via a 2013, 260-horsepower Bombardier personal watercraft (PWC) outfitted with running lights, spotlights, GPS, satellite phones, VHF radios, emergency beacons and four external gas tanks.
Marichalar is perhaps best known -- among those who keep track of these things -- for his 2002 PWC odyssey from Rome to New York.
This trip is also meant to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Spanish explorer and conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Marichalar said.
"It is scary and lonely out there, but you can feel God," the 52-year-old real estate and cellphone mogul said Monday from Cow Key Marina. "The sea is a big cathedral. Not in any religious sense, but in the sense of being in his creation. The stars, the horizon, the sharks -- all of it. You feel how truly weak you are, and it makes you want to be a better person."
Marichalar is on his second leg of the journey, which began when he left Puerto Rico in March for the Dominican Republic. He then motored on to the Turks and Caicos Islands before reaching the Bahamas and finally reaching West Palm Beach before being greeted in April by well-wishers in St. Augustine.
His latest run began in Miami this month. From Cuba, Marichalar will head to Mexico, then Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica before ending in Panama.
It is possible to reach Cuba via PWC, but such travels don't come with hearty recommendation from the Coast Guard.
That organization cited the unpredictable ocean swells and weather of the typically turbulent Gulf Stream -- the powerful ocean current that darts through the Florida Straits -- in October when describing the arrest of two Cuban-born men on PWCs some 30 miles south of Key West whom they suspected of smuggling migrants. The case remains unresolved in the federal court system.
Marichalar's 25-year-old wife, Ekqterine Anikeeva of eastern Russia, sat a few feet from him while he described the pounding waves and politics of a 2006 journey from Hong Kong to Tokyo. The run between China and Taiwan required some political maneuvering from both governments.
The Key West to Cuba run apparently required less preplanning, as Marichalar has visited Cuba before.
Anikeeva, however, couldn't fly from Key West to Cuba, so she was zipping up a wet suit and preparing to join her husband for the run across the Florida Straits. Anikeeva is from the Kamchatka Peninsula region of Russia's far east, and her family worked on boats.
Such blood traits showed when asked if she was apprehensive.
"I'm nervous, but not really," she said smiling. "I want to see sharks. Millions and millions of sharks."
Helping Marichalar -- a 1982 graduate of the University of Miami School of Business -- were Aquatic Watersports and Boat Rentals captains Cody Wright, 21, and Warren Havird, 24. Both young businessmen pitched in and helped Marichalar get his PWC in running order for the trip. They were on hand Monday to see him off safely from Cow Key Channel.
"We really just wanted to help out a fellow seaman, because what goes around comes around," Wright said. "Personally, I want to see him do it -- make it all the way and finish it."
Marichalar thanked both men and said he has seen such kindnesses in many countries among kinsmen of the sea -- particularly in Florida.
"I feel very linked to Key West and Florida, because this territory was Spanish for hundreds of years," he said. "I want to show the links between us through sport, history and adventure."
And with that, Marichalar and Anikeeva fired up the PWC and made their way into the channel. In minutes the little craft reached the horizon of the Atlantic Ocean -- and in a dash they were gone.
alinhardt@keysnews.com
