Despite the sunshine, Andreas Rütti's day begins with wet feet. As the retired secondary school teacher climbs out of the stern hatch and steps onto the sun deck of the Star Flyer in flip-flops, the four-master sinks into a wave trough, like a boxer going down. A surge of seawater from the pool at the stern of the ship sloshes up to the 62-year-old's calves. On the port side, he can see the rocks and the lighthouse on the south coast of the Balearic island of Formentera. It's been the same view for an hour, the Star Flyer is struggling against the gale force winds towards Ibiza and seems to be anchored to the seabed. What Rütti can't yet know: Just a few nautical miles away, in a bay on the north coast of Formentera, three of the six Frenchmen died at the same time when the anchor of their ten-metre sailing yacht broke loose in the storm and the wind and waves smashed the boat against the rocky coast. And there was something else Rütti didn't know at the time: The worst night for him and the other passengers on the luxury yacht was yet to come.
Eight days earlier, the 115-metre-long Star Flyer had set sail from Lisbon - one day late because work in the dry dock was delayed. On board: around 130 passengers, including Rütti, who is part of a 36-strong racing bike group organised by "Huerzeler Bicycle Holidays". Most of the cyclists are long-standing Hürzeler guests, some of whom already know each other from travelling together. Like the organiser himself, many of them are Swiss, plus a few Germans and a Dutch woman. The youngest of the group is 42, the oldest 74, most of them are between 50 and their mid-60s - people who have successful careers or are already living on a good pension: an architect, a doctor, an electrical engineer, a human resources manager, an osteopath, a former building contractor. For ten days on the ship plus one day each in Lisbon and Mallorca, they paid at least 5,150 euros without flights - almost ten times as much as a Hürzeler training week in Mallorca. This buys them exclusivity, a sleek, manageable ship as a base for their cycling tours and 70 crew members who take care of everything. The huge cruise ships in the harbours, next to which the sailing ship looks like a terraced house in front of a skyscraper, tend to be smiled at. "Like Ballermann at sea, not for me," says one of the racing cyclists.
In the green hinterland
As soon as the Star Flyer docks in the morning in port cities such as Portimão in the Algarve, Cádiz or Málaga in Andalusia, three groups of cyclists swarm out into the hinterland: a faster group that travels up to 100 kilometres, a moderate group that chooses a slightly shorter option and a leisurely group that returns to the port after a maximum of 50 kilometres. Roger Graf, who organised and leads the trip, leads the fastest group. The 45-year-old is very familiar with Cadiz, having managed a nearby Hürzeler cycle centre for eight years. Graf has organised a bus transfer for the cyclists to the hinterland to save them the trip through the corrosive city traffic. He leads the group confidently through the sparsely populated "campo abierto", the open country, as the locals call it - an archaic, almost treeless landscape. The road winds its way through fields of grain, next to which poppies glow red. Pink mallows and purple thistles grow along the roadside. The only signs of modernity are the wind turbines on the mountain ridges with their rotor blades pointing skywards. The rape is slowly fading, but still adds yellow accents to the landscape, which is coloured a pale green by the grasses and over which summer is already announcing itself with a pale sky. "In a month, everything will be brown here," says Graf, as the group heads towards the foothills of the Sierra de Grazalema, where the white village of Alcalá de los Gazules sits enthroned on the top of a hill, pointing the way for the cyclists. Time for a break at Café Casa Pizarro, in front of which all the tables are occupied by Spanish families chatting at a volume that can be heard almost as far as the village exit.
Two days later, however, the racing cyclists only hear the chirping of birds and their own panting - on the climb up to the castle of Castellar, which sits on a rock 259 metres above sea level north of Gibraltar. Many will say afterwards that it was the most beautiful climb of the whole journey. The narrow, not very steep little road climbs in the lower part through a forest of cork oaks, whose peeled trunks look like sheep after shearing. The views of the mountainous landscape, into which a reservoir nestles as if it had always been there, improve with every metre of ascent. Soon the castle appears around a bend, so high above the road that you have to tilt your head back and think that there are much more than just 240 metres of altitude difference to overcome.
Just don't lean
Back on board, the cyclists are marvelled at and admired - from day one. They had already boarded the ship in Lisbon with their bikes and in their jerseys made especially for the trip in the colours of the Spanish flag, red and yellow, and with the image of the Start Flyer on their chests. Roger Graf called it "flying the flag". The US guests in particular wanted to know straight away who was travelling with them. And they were thrilled, wanted to buy a jersey and would love to go on a cycling trip like this - or so they said. Then the Star Flyer sailed out of Lisbon. Everyone gathered on the sun deck, some toasting with champagne. Captain Mariusz Szalek had a few sails hoisted, but not all of them. Otherwise the ship would heel too much and the lean would spoil dinner for the guests, surmised one of the passengers, himself a sailor. "It's not nice when the starboard side runs out of food because all the food slides to port," he joked. The loudspeakers on deck blared out "Conquest of Paradise", the monumental music to the film "1492" about the discovery of America - music that boxer Henry Maske used for his entrance into the ring at the 1994 World Championships. "Conquest of Paradise" and setting sail under a few sails on the main and cross masts - this was to become a daily ritual over the next few days.
However, the first few hours at sea were an endurance test for many passengers: sailor or landlubber? That quickly became clear, as even a tame Atlantic shook the Star Flyer and spoilt the appetite and sleep of some. The next day, the sea was calmer, the nausea had passed for most - and the wind had fallen asleep. Even 3,000 square metres of sail did not help: in order to reach Portimão in the Algarve on time, the Star Flyer had to sail under engine power. This was to happen every day: Sometimes the wind blew too weakly, sometimes too strongly from the side. The passengers were never to experience the 17 knots that the ship could sail at.
Even in the Strait of Gibraltar, the engines laboured against the wind and waves. In vain: instead of leaving at ten o'clock, the ship did not lean against the quay off Tangier until midday. The bike trip along the Moroccan coast was cancelled. A stroke of luck for Andreas Rütti: "The walk through the old town of Tangier was the best cultural experience of the trip," he said later. "At last we had several hours to explore a city, otherwise there was hardly any opportunity to do so after cycling because the ship had already set sail again." Even for the evening before, when the Star Flyer had only left Cádiz at around 11 p.m., Rütti would have liked more time for the city. On that Saturday evening, the whole of Cádiz was on its feet for a procession as the figure of Mary the Defenceless was carried through the alleyways of the old town, enveloped in billows of incense and accompanied by melancholy brass band music. At half past ten in the evening, the cyclists were told to "All aboard!" - The fiesta in Cádiz was still far from reaching its climax.
A ship in flamenco fever
Back on board, the cyclists were greeted by "Conquest of Paradise" and the daily evening programme on the upper deck in front of the bar: talent and fashion shows in which the thin rows of volunteers were filled by crew members. The fashion shows turned into a sales show for shirts and trousers from the ship's shop, with cruise director Monja Salvati promoting the "Conquest of Paradise" CD. This was followed once again by a dance animation by the Polish sports duo on board to the songs "Macarena" and "Y.M.C.A." Afterwards, most of the passengers disappeared into their cabins.
One evening, however, the ship came alive in the form of a flamenco dance group: one man and three women enchanted the Star Flyer for an hour with passion and loud music. Sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs or foursomes, they stomped to the beat with such energy that the dancers' breasts shook and some of the older men could hardly be held back. They kept clapping and shouting: "Olé, olé!" and made it seem as if they wanted to jump to the side of the three beauties on the dance floor.
Where the heatwave is sweeping
The longer the journey took, the more extreme the weather became. Summer had got the season wrong. Hot air straight from the Sahara lay leadenly over the Spanish coast. In many Andalusian cities such as Granada, Seville and Córdoba, the thermometer read over 40 degrees. In Valencia, 42 degrees were measured. The roads in the Murcia region, through which the last cycle tour on the mainland passed - before heading to Ibiza and Mallorca - were deserted. The grass in the fields had dried to a straw-coloured hue and the sun was already burning out of a pale sky at 30 degrees in the morning. Apart from the almond and olive plantations and a few palm trees that adorn the villages, not a single tree grew in the ochre-brown landscape, which could also form the backdrop for a western. On the climb, a strong wind blew against the cyclists, hot as a hairdryer on level three. Later, it drove them back to the coast from behind, where the spring-fresh sea cooled the foehn down by two degrees.
When Andreas Rütti steps onto the deck of the Star Flyer on the last morning of the cruise, there is no water sloshing over his feet. He looks into an empty pool. Behind him and all the other passengers lies the toughest night of their journey, in which the portholes in the cabins resembled washing machine doors on spin cycle. Even the day before, after the stormy night off Ibiza, the deodorant and aftershave were still standing upright in the bathroom cabinet in the morning. After that night, everything is a mess for everyone. Seasickness has returned for some of them. But let's put an end to that once and for all. Ahead of the cyclists lies Palma with its mighty cathedral and Mallorca, a well-known cycling destination for most of them. Behind them lie ten days on boat and bike and many impressions that still need to be processed.
Mixed impressions
Andreas Rütti's conclusion is mixed: "The combination of bike and boat sounds incredibly attractive at first, but when it comes to realising it, it is only partially satisfactory - because we cyclists are too dependent on the boat's schedule." The group was unanimous in its praise for the cycle tours. "They were great, even though we always had to cycle a few kilometres through city traffic first," says Gabrielle Weber-Meyer, for example, who has only been cycling for a year but has always kept up with the fastest group. "I also like seeing something different every day. The green landscape at the beginning, the almost desert-like landscape a few days later - it was great to experience that in the group!" Ellen Harreveld, an electrical engineer from near Amsterdam, has been cycling for 28 years. For her, the bike-boat combination is something special. "You experience a lot, you're in a different area, a different city every day, and because you always return to the same room, you have less stress," says the 49-year-old, who trains around 8,000 kilometres a year on her bike. "For me, the tours could be a bit longer. But you shouldn't see a trip like this as a training camp, it's definitely not."
Organiser
Huerzeler Bicycle Holidays
Active Travel AG
Neugrütstrasse 4b
CH-8610 Uster
Phone 0041/(0)44/5003737
www.huerzeler.com
The price without travelling to Lisbon and departure from Mallorca was 5,150 euros in cabin class 2. Hürzeler did not offer cheaper cabins in classes 3 to 6. The price included the bike excursions and a rental bike including insurance: either an aluminium racing bike with Ultegra equipment or a sports bike. A carbon bike was available on request for an additional 45 euros. The organiser was unable to say whether Hürzeler will offer further luxury bike sailing cruises in the future; no such trip is planned for 2016.
Itinerary
One day in Lisbon - two days due to work on the hull - was followed by a ten-day cruise in four countries, with stops in Portugal (Lisbon, Portimão), Spain (Cádiz, Malta, Cartagena, Ibiza, Mallorca), Morocco (Tangier) and England (Gibraltar).
Cycling tours
The rides were suitable for beginners as well as ambitious cyclists. The fastest group usually cycled distances of 80 to 100 kilometres and around 1,000 metres in altitude. As everyone was allowed to ride as fast as they wanted on the longer climbs, almost everyone got their money's worth. In addition, temperatures of more than 30 degrees made many rides more difficult.
Ship
The 115 metre long Star Flyer, launched in 1991, belongs to the Monegasque shipping company Star Clippers SAM, offers space for up to 170 passengers and sails under the Maltese flag. The design of the ship is modelled on the famous clipper sailing ships of the 19th century - from the sleek hull to the mighty masts, the solid wooden rudder and the maritime-style interior. A clipper is a type of fast cargo sailing ship built in the United States. The Star Flyer can reach a maximum speed of 17 knots under sail - but only 10 knots under engine power. The ship is mainly used for cruises in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, but is also occasionally used in the South Seas and the North and Baltic Seas.
