Of all the ends of the world that are repeated these days, that of the 'Easter Island', anchored in front of the islet of s'Espalmador, north of Formentera, is one of the most desirable. On March 11, just before the state of alarm was decreed, Rafael Lambiés, 54 , left the Yacht Club of Valencia on his eleven-meter sailboat in search of a desert island.
"Wouldn't you go out at eight o'clock to clap on the deck?"
- Well no, I didn't want anyone to think I'm crazy .
Thirty days later, and with the closest human being more than five kilometers away, the Subdelegation of the Government of Ibiza has urged him to leave, under threat of a crime that they have not been able to specify; but that the captain of the 'Easter Island' believes that it is approaching that of "envying".
Hours before receiving the threat, we spoke to him on the phone. In the background, the voice of Pedro Sánchez is heard. "They are not ashamed, they take us for fools," he says, turning off the TV.
While the Formentera Police use drones to fine passers-by who dare to roam trails and deserted beaches, Lambiés got into his canoe these days and took a walk on the islet, less than three kilometers long by 800 meters width . "On a deserted island, I can't catch it, nor can I catch it, I'm not a problem for anyone, but if they force me to return to Valencia, and I catch it, and I die, whose fault is it. I don't think anyone dares to assume that responsibility, "he commented precisely hours before someone assumed it.
One of the keys to survival in paradise is to have a good routine, he explains: "I wake up at dawn and look at where the boat is and the weather." A week ago he got a good scare when a huge Canadian-flagged catamaran appeared two hundred meters away . They immediately beckoned to the captain, and they ended up talking on the phone. Apparently he was not the only one who had the same idea of confinement: "They are a couple of doctors with three young children, two girls and a boy, aged 12, 8 and 6. They had crossed the Atlantic to the United Kingdom, then Sweden and Norway, they returned to Portugal, they went down and they went into the Mediterranean ".
- Do you keep company?
- Little, in the morning we wave. The children study inside the boat and then go down to s'Espalmador for a walk, to play, they put up the umbrella, like on a normal day at the beach . When they go I don't go.
- Do they take turns using the island?
- Sure, I don't want to catch it.
Inside, the confinement on an eleven-meter sailboat is too similar to that of a conventional house: "I have a TV, radio, books on the tablet, and I brought a hard drive with a lot of movies, but I haven't seen anything, no I have a lot of time. I lack hours a day . "
- And what does he do?
- The boat is 31 years old and needs to be maintained, repaired. I am writing a journal of how I am handling this, and I have continued to telework my stuff.
- What is it...
- I'm a property manager. Now we are with the quarterly statements.
- And the food? Fishing?
- No, I do not like fish, I do not have lines, or cane. I only went to the supermarket once because I don't want to go ashore, I have to tell Salvamento Marítimo that I'm going, it's a bit of a mess. In fact I chose Formentera because when I arrived there was no contagion, now there are three people but it seems that it is free of coronavirus. Nothing to see when I left Valencia, which at the time was amazing. I could hardly buy any food. I was getting scared . I'm not older but all kinds of people were beginning to die. "
Lambiés had been anchoring in front of s'Espalmador since he was eight years old, which has helped him survive in isolation much worse than this. Specifically, last December, when he decided to spend the end of the year at the same point: "On the 30th, I went ashore to buy provisions and saw no one, I felt like the last man on earth, but when I went down now I came across with at least three cars and two people . "
On Friday afternoon, the Civil Guard announced that he had to return to his base port, where he docked on Saturday afternoon. That they were orders from the Government Subdelegation. "My adventure ends," he announced on his social networks. When he arrived at s'Espalmador no one knew of its existence. He learned from local radio that the last persons arriving on the island were to report their place of accommodation and their state of health, and he acted in good faith. An eleven-meter sailboat, 38.7149 degrees North, 1.3321 degrees East. In good health. "They were very strange, of course," he recalls. That's where his problems started.
At first they offered to return to Valencia, but he refused: "At that time in Valencia there were a lot of cases, why would he want to return." Then they forgot about him until his confinement began to become public, and now they force him to leave, also leaving s'Espalmador for the exclusive enjoyment of the Canadian family: "They told me a lot of nonsense , that recreational boating was prohibited, when the only thing they have prohibited is entering and leaving the port because they are closed, but I am outside the port. I have tried to reason with them and give me a piece of paper, or an email, but they did not intend to give me anything. Normal, I don't think no one dares to sign a thing like this. Anyway, they kick me out, and I don't know what will happen because here I feel quite safe, I know how to navigate in the sea, but on land, I don't control anything from the virus. "
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