This will be the princess’s first days on the training ship

About to say goodbye to the Christmas holidays, The Princess of Asturias counts the days to board the training ship Juan Sebastián Elcano. It will be shortly after Three Kings’ Day, next January 8, when midshipman Leonor de Borbón begins her six-month journey aboard the most emblematic ship of the Navy, in which she will continue with her naval training and will experience one of the stages most stimulating of your life.

The heir to the throne will begin the XCVII Instruction Cruise next Wednesday. She will do it together with 75 other colleagues who, like her, They will have to go through a series of previous activities the next day at the exit of the ship. On January 10 there will be a visit to the Cádiz City Council and the Navy Non-Commissioned Officers School in San Fernando will be visited.

The most emotional day before raising the sails will be January 11, when the farewell to the family takes place, whom the midshipmen will not see until June. The first-born of Don Felipe and Doña Letizia will go to the Santo Domingo church at 9:00 a.m. to visit Our Lady of the Rosary, who for almost four decades has usually left the altar to go up to Elcano. At 11:00 a.m. the kings will preside over the official farewell of the ship, which, Unlike the rest of the years, they will see their daughter march in it.

The princess’s journey, in figures

The granddaughter of Don Juan Carlos I will pass through at this time a total of eight countries on the American continent and six Spanish cities. From Cádiz, the boat heads to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. From there it crosses the Atlantic to Salvador de Bahía (in Brazil), Montevideo (in Uruguay), Punta Arenas and Valparaíso (in Chile), El Callao (in Peru), Panama City, Cartagena de Indias and Santa Marta (in Colombia). and Santo Domingo (in the Dominican Republic). From there, it sails to New York (United States). From the city of skyscrapers, Leonor returns to Spain by plane. In Gijón you will board the training ship again. The final date of this stage is set for July 21, 2025, in Cádiz.

In total, there will be 140 days at sea. It will be a long trip, 140 days, which includes a journey of 17,000 nautical miles. It must be remembered that until the Christmas holidays, the Princess of Asturias has been living and training at the Marín Naval School, after having spent the previous year at the Zaragoza Military Academy of the Army.