The Spanish Navy training ship ‘Juan Sebastián de Elcano’ starts her 93rd instruction cruise.

The training ship ‘Juan Sebastian de Elcano’ has begun her 93rd Midshipmen's training cruise in which she is scheduled to make her eleventh round-the-world voyage. This cruise will be one of the most important milestones of the celebrations of the 500 anniversary of the first circumnavigation of the globe.

The ship set sail this morning from La Carraca Naval Base, and not from Cadiz as usual, since most of the institutional events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the training cruise, the ship plans to visit the most relevant places of the original ‘Magellan/Elcano’ expedition, such as the bay of San Julián (Argentina), the Strait of Magellan (Chile), the island of Guam (USA), the Philippines and the Moluccas Islands (Indonesia) on dates coinciding with the 5th Centenary of the expedition's stopovers.

This training cruise will be rather atypical and marked by the uncertainty posed by the current situation of the world pandemic. In this context, the Spanish Navy will constantly study the evolution of the pandemic and will make the appropriate decisions, bearing in mind that the top priority will be the security and wellbeing of the crew.

During the first part of the training cruise, the ship will sail without midshipmen. They will embark during the ship's scheduled port of call in Guayaquil, Ecuador, between December 5 and 10, 2020. From then on, the current educational program will be developed as planned, ending on July 14, 2021 when the training cruise will eventually end.