Francisco Jiménez: “Together, we have managed to turn a pipe dream into reality”

Francisco Jiménez Vara went to sea at the age of 17 as a deckhand and, by 27, had already taken command of a vessel as captain with the shipping company Marítima de Formentera.

He explains that going to sea as a teenager was a ploy by his father to persuade him to resume the Medicine studies he had begun before switching to Nautical Studies; his father’s plan failed. Nearly half a century later, the captain remembers that first voyage: “It was hard, but the experience opened my eyes to a world very different from the one I lived in day to day in Madrid.”

The then young captain joined Isnasa in 1990, later moving to Flebasa and, with it, to Dénia in 1995. He experienced first-hand the uncertainty surrounding the break-up of Victoriano Sayalero’s shipping company and the emergence of Baleària; always as a captain and without leaving the ship whose command was taken over by Adolfo Utor, where, he says, he feels at ease: “We work like musketeers, all for one; and despite the size the company has reached, I still feel that I belong to one big family.” And, with a good measure of pride, he concludes: “Together, we have managed to turn a pipe dream into reality.”

His professional career has taken him across practically every sea in the world (“Except the Arctic ones — I freeze just thinking about them,” he adds). Above all, Jiménez Vara can be described as the captain behind many of Baleària’s major milestones. He was the first captain of the Federico García Lorca (“It was like going from a Fiat 600 to a Mercedes; who wouldn’t like that?” he jokes) and of the Ramon Llull, including the highly demanding manoeuvres in Ciutadella’s old port. Always as captain, Jiménez Vara was at the centre of one of the most tense moments in Baleària’s history when all communication with the Nixe I was lost for more than two days during its positioning voyage from Singapore, in an area rife with pirates and in the middle of a cyclone. The captain also remembers the delivery of the vessel Martín i Soler, the opening of the Miami route (“We were like Hernán Cortés and Pizarro”) and the positioning voyage of the Daniya, now the Poeta López Anglada, from Belfast to Santander.

Among his work at Baleària, Jiménez Vara also highlights his role as construction inspector for the four ferries built at the Barreras shipyard in Vigo, where, “as a Baleària captain”, he put everything on the table to ensure the quality of the vessels and every single one of their components.

The perspective gained over the years allows the captain to say he is “proud” to have made the right choice by staying at Baleària “when there were other, better-paid opportunities, but money is not everything in life”, and he hopes the shipping company “will continue for many years to be a source of pride for the Marina Alta and the Spanish Merchant Navy”.

Continuous learning

Jiménez Vara shies away from saying what he believes he has contributed to his colleagues (“let them say it,” he replies), but when it comes to his contribution to Baleària he has no doubts: “Work, experience, professionalism and determination”, in an environment that has allowed him “to learn every day and meet friendly, hard-working and honest people, but also plenty of sea-going show-offs — you get all sorts”.

What this seasoned captain has no doubt about is Baleària’s growth and consolidation: “No one backed us, yet we are Spain’s leading shipping company; that says it all.” And although he does not question the company’s reputation and intangible value, he does not seem overly concerned about how Baleària is perceived: “Some will envy us, others will respect us, but Baleària has to focus on its goals, which are our customers, and stay on the course we set a quarter of a century ago.”