Boluda send-off for Spanish training ship

The Spanish Navy clearly still recognises the value of training its sailors in basic seamanship skills with its traditional steel-hulled, four-masted, topsail barquentine training ship Juan Sebastián Elcano a vessel of 113m in length built in Cádiz in 1927. Another tradition is that the occasion of its departure from Cádiz, accompanied by its escort vessels Infanta Elena and Tofiño on its tour of America and Northern Europe is one that has to be celebrated by the accompaniment of a multitude of small boats and witnessed by hundreds of people on the shore not to mention a fly-past by several Spanish Air Force fighters.

To assist in the safe manoeuvring of the vessel out of the port Cádiz Pilotage Corporation tasked Boluda’s VB Cadiz, VB Jerez, VB Boxer, VB Rota and VB Maestro for the operation. The combined bollard pull of 267 tonnes of the five tugs was not required of course but their presence added to the safety provision escorting the training vessel through the channel with two of the tugs providing a display with their firefighting water cannons, overall an operation which earned the congratulations of the pilots on excellent coordination of the tugs and their skippers’ skill in manoeuvring while surrounded by smaller vessels.

Juan Sebastián Elcano was under the command of Captain Ignacio Paz Garcia and had on board 70 midshipmen from the 421^st regiment of Quartermasters’ Corps and 151^st Marine Corps. First stop is Santa Cruz de Tenerife before crossing the Atlantic to Cartagena de Indias Colombia, Veracruz, Pensacola, Havana and final stop on the American tour Boston. Following this the ship will return to Europe sailing to Lisbon from where it will head to the Baltic with a visit to the Polish port of Szczecin followed by Kiel in Germany.

In July it returns to Spain stopping first at Getaria in northern Spain (hometown for the sailor for whom the training ship is named) and then onto Getxo near Bilbao and finally Marin (Pontevedra) before its 91^st training cruise is completed back in Cádiz towards the end of the month.