Port call of Spanish Navy training ship ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ in Curaçao.

The training ship ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’, currently engaged in her 92nd training cruise, has pulled into Curaçao between February 22 and 26 for a scheduled port call.

The last time the ‘Elcano’ visited the island belonging to the Kingdom of the Netherlands was in 2006, on the occasion of her 77th training cruise. This is the second time that the ship has arrived at the port of the city of Willemstad.

The commanding officer of the ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ is Captain Santiago de Colsa and her crew consists of 20 officers, 23 NCOs, 143 leading seamen and ratings, and 2 civilians, plus 54 midshipmen from the 422nd Spanish Navy graduation class and the 152nd Marine Corps graduation class. For this cruise the ship has also embarked midshipmen from the navies of Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.

The purpose of the training cruise aboard the ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ is to contribute to the overall training (military, nautical, technical, socio-cultural, ethical-human and physical) of the embarked students, through classes, instruction and training both at sea and in port. Likewise, the ship supports the external action of the State through naval presence in several ports.

At the end of this 92nd training cruise, the ship will have visited the cities of Las Palmas, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mar de Plata, Montevideo, Recife, Curaçao, Santo Domingo and Miami, before returning to Cadiz on April 18th.