Álvaro de Marichalar navigates between adventure, contempt for his family, heartbreak and ecology

Alvaro de Marichalar, 62 years old, he is not going to go down 4,000 meters in a submarine to see the Titanic. But his adventurous hobbies also carry risks. The adventurous uncle of froilan y Victoria Federica He continues his life sailing alone through the seas of the world, with his watercraft. The older brother of Jaime de Marichalar He has been in Panama for two months, where he intends to cross the famous channel that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific with his jet ski, Numancia, three meters long.

Numancia, named after the ruins found by one of his ancestors, on the Marichalar estate in Soria, is damaged and, while it has just been repaired, Álvaro is also waiting for permission from the Canal Authority to navigate this marine corridor, a request that he already made last April.

The loose verse of the family ex Duke of Lugo sail standing up so as not to damage his spine and he has made some modifications to the Numancia, such as an extra fuel tank that allows him to travel 350 kilometers without a support ship.

After breaking several world records as a solo sailor, the ex-brother-in-law of the infanta elena He has explained in Panama that traveling the sea with this modality has many risks, but the most worrisome are the plastics that are thrown into the sea, rivers and lakes, which in his case get into the propellers of his boat and can leave him thrown in the middle of the ocean. But apart from this possibility, Marichalar has denounced in an interview on Panamanian television that we are “eating garbage, as a consequence of the tons of plastic that ends up in the water.” His defense of the marine environment He is already part of his expeditions and in every place where he has the opportunity to denounce and propose solutions on the subject.

How do you pay for your adventures?

The Spanish adventurer finances his journeys through sponsorships of brands that support him in the different countries where he makes his stops. Álvaro de Marichalar leads his family life alone, after divorcing the young Ukrainian woman in 2014 Ekaterina Anikieva, 30 years younger than him and with whom he was only married for three years.

Another of his failed plans was his short-lived political career as a candidate for UPyD, the party of Rosa Diez, in which Marichalar ran unsuccessfully for the European Parliament elections in 2014.

A letter that he publicly signed, asking that Cristina de Bourbon renounce his titles and dynastic rights and request “sorry so that some Spaniards can return to respect her and look her in the eye again”, deeply upset the Marichalars, who considered their brother’s arrogance intolerable, since despite the divorce of Jaime and the Infanta Elena, they remain loyal and unwavering supporters of the Royal Family and the monarchy