At the beginning of this war, King Fernando commanded that a great fleet of galleys and naos be fitted out, to wit, twenty-eight of his own galleys, along with four contracted from Master Reinel de Guirimaldo, plus thirty naos from the kingdom's resources and from those which sailed round the sea coast to join him. The admiral of the galleys was Master Lançarote Pessanha, and their captain was Juan Fozín, one of those knights who had arrived from Castile to serve King Fernando. Juan Fozín was the first to put to sea with six galleys and two galliots on 15 June, whereas the admiral left afterwards with the whole fleet.

The king's intention was that this fleet should take up a position at the mouth of the Seville River to prevent any ship from arriving at or sailing away from the said city, either with merchandise or other provisions. With that port duly blockaded for a lengthy period, Castile would consequently suffer such losses and such detriment as to bring King Fernando great advantages in the pursuit of his objectives. Furthermore, some of the galleys and ships would patrol the coast, seize from his enemies whatever they could and always return to the river mouth, where they would come to rest alongside the other ships whenever they saw it to be necessary. From all of this, there could come nothing but a very successful outcome.

In the month of May, the naos and galleys all set sail together from their stations off the port of Lisbon, carrying many people from the kingdom, which was a wondrous sight to behold. The galleys were led by Master Baldassare di Spinola, and Brancaleone, [both] Genoese, and by João de Mendonça, Gonçalo Durais de Lisboa, Gomes Lourenço de Carnide and others whose names will not be missed if they are not recorded here. They reached a place named Barrameda, which lies at the mouth of the Seville River, and there they all came to anchor. On seeing them, the Castilians were very displeased at how near they had managed to come and, scornfully, told them that they did not go to the help of King Pedro while he was alive and now they would be going to help his bones after his death.