Enrique Peña is the captain of the Guardamar, one of the Salvament ships with the most rescues since 2019. He believes that “only people who know the sea, fishermen or sailors who have crossed the ocean in extreme conditions, can to get a slight idea of ??what it’s like to be in the middle of the sea, in a boat that can capsize”. Absolute darkness while the sea roars, and that’s if everything goes well during the ten-day crossing that separates one coast from the other. At the time of the interview, Enrique Peña is on the command bridge of the Polimnia, moored to its twin, the lifeguard in the port of Arrecife (Lanzarote) waiting for an emergency warning to sound on the radio.
How are these months of service in the Canary Islands?
We work with media. We are currently in the Canaries three of the four lifeguards that Salvament has, in addition to the lifeguards, ten spread over seven islands. Now the calms begin and there will be an increase in migration. This year we also see an upswing with cayucos in the southern area that we haven’t seen for a long time.
You have made numerous rescues, do you remember any in particular?
I remember a few, but I single out one that impressed me. It happened in Almeria. We rescued a tire that had almost collapsed. There were people in the water and we managed to get them on board without much difficulty, but one of the women kept shouting, we found out that she was looking for her daughter. Hours later we found the body of the little girl floating. I held her in my arms, she was a two-year-old baby, the age my daughter was then.
What is the most delicate moment of the rescue?
When we approach his boat. They always get nervous. Everyone wants to save themselves as soon as possible and goes into survival mode. My crew is very well trained, try to keep them calm and sometimes act firm. It must also be checked if there are children.
Do they get overturned?
Yes. The tires, which break more easily, have more stability than the wooden ones, which we call pasteras. In these, if their occupants go to one side, they capsize.
How is the relationship on board? Do you talk to them?
When you come back with people on deck, you come across many situations, children, people who are not well, neither physically nor psychologically. We have had cases of people who wanted to throw themselves into the water, literally. From grabbing them in extremis to almost having to tie them up so they don’t throw themselves into the sea.
And doesn’t he say to them ‘boy, what are you doing here in the middle of the sea’?
I was an emigrant, I went to France to look for work and a better life. I can understand where they are coming from. A boy whose hands had been cut off, in the war, was happy.
It was with Polimnia in Arguineguín in the fall of 2020, with five daily rescues; how do you remember those months?
Five? At that time we had up to 13 rescues in a row, we were not sleeping. That was a tremendous avalanche, impossible.
And then back to a dock where over 2,000 people were crammed…
Overwhelming, it was more of a ghetto.
What are 100 kilometer crossings like on pastures? There are those who think they are whimsical trips.
They have no idea. The sea at this distance becomes dark. That’s the word. There is tremendous darkness, there is no light. If they are lucky, they can see the stars. But if not, it’s tremendous, you can’t see anything and the sea roars… There are people who have no idea what it is. When we find dead bodies on boats it is because the occupants lack the strength to throw them into the sea.
How are the returns to land with some dead on board next to those who were their fellow travelers?
A couple of years ago we had a pasture in which three or four corpses came. One was the brother of a survivor. He stayed until the last moment gently helping to remove his brother’s body. My crew tried to accompany him as best they could. That kind of thing marks you, you know? They condition you. The writer Joseph Conrad, who was also a merchant marine captain in the 19th century, said that the ship we serve on is the moral symbol of our existence. This can be applied to everything, to the way you work, to your life. Working on a Rescue boat always conditions you.
