born among waves

The ship saw me being born.

This is not a metaphor or a nice way of putting it: it really happened. Before I could remember anything, before I could walk or talk, I was already here, on this wood, with the sea nearby and the world still waiting to be discovered. The Rafael Verdera was not a stage, it was a witness.

In the image on the left, that’s me, Iñaki, born at home aboard the Rafael Verdera on May 22, 1998, two and a half hours after my parents had moored in the port of Palma. In this photo, I am three days old.

In the image on the right is my little sister Sara Sabina, who was also born “on board the Rafael Verdera” on August 27, 1999, and is 3 years old in the photo.