The last thing King Juan Carlos I heard this Thursday from the mainland were three or four heart-rending cries of "Long live the King" and "Long live Spain", cries that broke the silence of the cloudy day in Sanxenxo, followed by a few applause from the jetty where journalists and a few residents crowded together, an almost desert act considering the size of the marina.
It was twelve noon and the
Rascal
, the emeritus king's ship, was towed by a rope to enter the waters of the Pontevedra estuary.
In solitude, accompanied by four more crew members who were not the starters with whom he will participate in the regatta, the king emeritus sat at the helm on his last throne, a padded seat for him on a sailboat that does not reach six meters to skipper the boat and train for the Spanish championship that is being held this weekend in the Rías Baixas.
23 years ago, the King of Spain visited Sanxenxo and this Pontevedra port for the first time.
He was received by the president of the Xunta, Manuel Fraga, and the mayor (who was the same as now, Telmo Martín), and numerous councillors
,
and hundreds of residents crowding the security fences with extraordinary security measures that had half covered. town.
Screams, fainting due to the heat, tears, cheers, impressive gifts from the authorities to which her Majesty was then untouchable as the
Giralda boat
, which had belonged to his father, Juan de Borbón, was moored in the waters of Sanxenxo to the surprise and emotion of the monarch.
Traffic cut off in the center of town, disembarkation of mayors from the province, shouts of “long live the King” and “long live the King”.
This Tuesday it was a boy of about 20 years old broadcasting live for a minority Youtube channel the maximum expression of love that the old king had: "Sorry, a tear has escaped me," he said when Juan Carlos I sat down in the
Bribón
.
“Nobody applauds! Nobody shouts: 'Long live Spain'!” she complained at another time.
"He is waving!" he shouted, although what the king was doing was hoisting a sail, although he had waved briefly before, from the car without lowering the window (the window is the media star, whether it is lowered or not) or from the boat by getting on it.
This Tuesday the car that brought him to Sanxenxo from the nearby parish of Nanín, driven by his friend Pedro Campos, did not even stop at the Real Club Náutico and went to the end of the jetty, where his boat was waiting.
He went down the stairs helped by his cane and a companion, and got on the boat with some agility for his 85 years.
He was already at sea, the only thing that remains the same in Sanxenxo for him.
Without the popular heat, among the indifference of the neighbors and with the institutional coldness ordered veiledly from his old house and by order of his son, Felipe VI, the old king is left with the sea, the Atlantic, not even the Mediterranean of Mallorca, natural refuge of the Bourbons.
There is nothing else in his life in Spain than the sea and his old crew (Roi Álvarez, Iñaki Castañer, Jane Abascal, Pedro Campos and Alberto Viejo),
The
Knave
went offshore towed by a boat with a motor and the figure of the king perfectly recognizable from land (vest, cap, sunglasses, hand on the rod).
A safety zodiac behind, two helicopters flying over and reconnaissing the terrain, which was nothing more than the Atlantic, still as a plate.
There was a northerly wind 80/90, that is, northwest;
intensity from 7 to 9 knots, wind direction between 270 and 290 degrees.
El
Bribón
was towed towards the area of the island of Ons, where the wind was blowing, and there she was practicing for about three hours.
Upon returning, the emeritus king got back into the car that took him back to Campos's house, where he remains confined among shellfish and a woman, Campos's, who interprets the signs of the zodiac.
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