The Spanish navigator Alvaro de Marichalar performed for the first time a Jet Ski travel through open sea with his wife, the Russian Ekaterina Anikeeva, a distance of nearly eight hours from Key West to Havana, where he said today that it is a record he hopes to be officially recognized.
De Marichalar and Anikeeva arrived Cuba on Tuesday completing the stage Key West- Havana of the trip the adventurer began this month in Miami ( USA) to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Vasco Nunez de Balboa.
“For the first time I sail with someone else in my same ship,” Marichalar told reporters this Wednesday at the Marina Hemingway Nautical Club in Havana, after highlighting the “courage” of Anikeeva, whom he described as a “hero.”
According to the Spaniard , they made the crossing “100 percent standing” on board his jet ski “Numancia” and suffered two falls without “panicking,” the first was at just 25 miles after leaving Key West, and another one at night at just seven miles from the Cuban capital.
Marichalar explained that Ankikeeva, who was born in Kamchatka and from a family close to marine life, had accompanied him on short trips before, but never on a journey of this magnitude.
He asserted that they have imposed together a new record of high distance covered by a couple at open sea in Jet Ski and they hope to be certified.
For now, Ankikeeva will not repeat the experience in the next stage Havana-Cancun (Mexico) with scheduled departure on Thursday from Hemingway Club.
So far, Marichalar has traveled 210 miles of the 2,400 to be covered in this journey, celebrating the discovery of the Pacific on September 25, 1513 by Nunez de Balboa.
His next stops include points in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia, where it is expected to put an end to the trip on January 2014.
Marichalar adds this tribute to the one he already carried out between last March and April to the discovery of Florida by colonizer Juan Ponce de León 500 years ago, reissuing his maritime route.
The “Florida Discovery Expedition” was his 39th maritime feat and took him to navigate by Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, Bahamas, Florida and Havana.
“It’s a tribute to what it means overcoming fear, joining lands, cultures, races and religions,” he said today, stressing the importance these travels had five centuries ago to the history of Europe, America, Spain and the world.
Marichalar, who travels alone without support ship and always sails standing, dedicates these expeditions to raising funds for non-governmental organizations and charity foundations.
