Princess Leonor sets sail aboard Spanish Navy training ship

Within hours of Leonor Borbón Ortiz stepping onto the training ship Juan Sebastián de Elcano for the first time she was already repeating some of the snapshots that her father, Felipe VI, took on board almost 40 years ago.

Last Wednesday Princess Leonor had her first contact with those in charge of the ship and with the other 75 midshipmen with whom she will spend more than half a year sailing the waters of several oceans.

A day later, the heir to the throne carried out the first activities as part of her navy training at the Marín Naval School in Pontevedra. Before setting course for the high seas and setting sail from the Port of Cadiz, Leonor saw what the Juan Sebastián de Elcano looks like inside, on deck and from its highest point.

The training ship, an almost century-old vessel, set sail on Saturday 11 January for America, where Leonor and her other companions will begin a voyage that will take in eight countries and six Spanish cities. In Elcano's travelogue, with the Princess on board, the crew are expected to visit firstly Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Days later it will cross the Atlantic to Salvador de Bahía in Brazil, Montevideo (Uruguay), Punta Arenas and Valparaíso (Chile), El Callao (Peru), Panama City, Cartagena de Indias and Santa Marta in Colombia and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). From there the next stop will be the United States in the docks at New York. Leonor will return to Spain by plane from the Big Apple before boarding again in Gijón, the homeland of her mother, Queen Letizia. The final date of the trip is set for 21 July, in the city of Cadiz.