January 11, 2025 is a date marked in red on the calendar of the Princess Eleanor. That day, the Heiress, just like her father did in 1977, will board the Navy training ship, the Juan Sebastián Elcano, to share five months of sailing with her fellow midshipmen. In total, more than 17,000 nautical miles tours, 140 days of sailing at sea and stopping in eight countries: Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Panama, Colombia, Dominican Republic and the United States.
The Princess entered the Marín Naval School last August to complete her second year of military training. After a few months of training, Doña Leonor and her companions They will begin one of their most important milestones as students of the Naval Academy: they will embark on the Juan Sebastián Elcano as midshipmen of the XCVII training cruise.
The voyage will depart on January 11 from Cádiz and will last for six months, until July 21, although the Princess will miss the final return journey because from New York He will return by plane to Spain. During that month in which her companions are crossing the Atlantic back, Leonor will board a frigate to continue her seafaring and naval training. Despite everything, he will join his companions again in Gijón on July 7 to make the last voyage with them to Marín, with a stop before in Ferrol.
All students of the Naval Academy of the Navy embark on the Elcano every year as part of their training. The ship also contributes to the external action of the State with diplomacy activities in the ports where it docks during the voyage. A “floating embassy” of Spain, as defined by the Admiral Chief of Staff of the Navy (Ajema), Admiral General Antonio Piñeiro.
Wind in favor
On its XCVII cruise, the ship, with Leonor as honorary midshipman, will make its first stops in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, six initial days of navigation that help the students adapt to sailing. From there it will face almost a month of sailing (22 days at sea) until reaching the Brazilian port of Salvador de Bahía, where it will dock on February 14. A journey that they will try to do everything under sail, taking advantage of the wind and weathering the ‘equatorial calms’ that will test their expertise.
From there it will sail to Montevideo (Uruguay) and will then begin one of the most delicate and important moments of the journey, which will consist of crossing the Strait of Magellan to dock in Punta Arenas, known as the port at the end of the world because it is located at the southern tip of Chile.
On March 23, the schooner brig will resume sailing north along the west coast of South America to Valparaíso (Chile) and El Callao, in Peru. The Elcano will then cross the Suez Canal, with stops in Panama and Cartagena (Colombia) to resume its journey north to the island of Santo Domingo. From there it will continue to New York, where the Princess will disembark to fly to Spain.
The Ajema recalled that the Elcano was launched in 1927 and since then it has completed eleven times around the world, emulating the feat started by Ferdinand Magellan and completed by the Spanish sailor. During these almost one hundred years it has trained dozens of generations of sailors. The practical navigation classes are completed with demanding academic training on board, although Admiral Piñeiro acknowledged that some of the most important lessons that the midshipmen will acquire will not be in books. «Strengthening teamwork, trust in colleagues, commitment, leadership,… The inherent harshness of the sea and sailing will require a united and consolidated crew capable of overcoming any adversity. “All of us who have gone through Elcano have learned a lot, but the fundamental thing is that we forged ourselves in values,” shared its commander, Captain Luis Carreras-Presas do Campo.
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