Another of the greats has left us, Enrique Fernandez Galve, our beloved Kike “El Bigotes”, so suddenly this morning Victor Unzueta calls me, and he comments to me laconic, I have to give you some bad news, our Kike is running out to go, I am stunned, because although lately it seemed that he had improved a bit from that damn disease, in the end he has ended up taking it away. I quickly called Pablo Benjumeda who is the one who has been with Kike until the last moment and he tells me that yes, unfortunately the good old Kike is already sailing with his Mephisto through those immense oceans where only the chosen and the great do, because Kike He was a great one of the greatest and I still have the memory of this summer when in Puerto Sherry we gave each other a strong and endearing hug after a few years without seeing each other.
Kike was an endearing and great person, and some will say, if when a friend leaves we always speak well of him, but this is not the case because the multifaceted Kike was and will always be eternal. I met him many years ago, when he came to the Port as a driver, confidant, mechanic and everything you can imagine, on the bus transformed into a roulotte at that time, where Angel Nieto traveled, to run through those European circuits, including the one in Jerez. .
His overwhelming personality immediately hooked you and it was impossible to say no. So many hours on board his “Ifarra” and the occasional trip on his famous motorcycle “Natacha”, would be enough to write a very extensive and entertaining book of experiences and anecdotes.
Both for his professionalism in his work and for his outgoing character, Kike was liked by all sectors and by all people, he was the skipper of some of the boats owned by his great friend Ricardo Urgel, who apart from sailing through Ibizan waters, was always the Chosen to cross the Atlantic a few times to the Caribbean, I remember with pride and nostalgia that my last port before crossing had to be Puerto Sherry.
He was a friend of his friends and I never saw a bad face or a bad gesture with anyone throughout the many years we were in contact. He told me that since he was little, when his father, who was a doctor specializing in tropical diseases, was assigned to Arcos de La Frontera, he was hooked on this land and since then he boasted about it and lived like a portuense and an Andalusian more the same as he did later. when he settled in Ibiza.
Dear Kike, our beloved “Mustaches”, there are many of us who have been screwed, but at the same time we know that with your Mephisto and browsing wherever you are, you will always give us a hand, but be clear about one thing, we will miss you, a lot but much less. “Whiskers” rest in peace you have earned it more than enough friend.
