SPAIN: Sailing training ship JUAN SEBASTIAN DE ELCANO leaves port

The foreign trips of the Training ships look very different in coronavirus times. On 24 August, the training sailing ship JUAN SEBASTIAN DE ELCANO set sail from a quarantine zone in the port of Cadiz in south-west Spain on its 93rd training voyage. The special thing about it was that it was not just the fifth circumnavigation of the almost hundred-year-old four-masted topsail schooner. This round-the-world voyage is being organised to mark the 500th anniversary of the voyage of discovery of its namesake, who completed the voyage begun by Magellan with five ships and 270 men after three years - with just 18 men and one ship. Times have changed. Before the departure date, the crew of 172 men and women underwent training in strict hygiene protocols and spent an extended quarantine period with double PCR testing to ensure that they were reliably virus-free by the deadline. No farewell ceremony on departure, with Admiral Antonio Martorell, the head of the fleet, as the only guest on board, with "hold on" slogans in his luggage. The return to Cadiz is planned for 14 July 2021 - that's 325 days without any liberty ashore, as we know it. In the ports of call, no crew members are allowed to disembark and no strangers are allowed on board (with the exception of "perfectly hygienic" pilots). Provisions and supplies are deposited on the pier, then sanitised by the crew and brought on board. Small amounts of sport are only permitted in a cordoned-off area on the pier - nothing else. "You have to keep the ship clean, one positive case on board and the circumnavigation is over!" - the head of the fleet had reduced it to this simple formula in the summer. After passing through the strait discovered by Magellan and named after him (see Chile), the journey continues to Guayaquil in Ecuador, where new cadets are to be embarked. Then it continues via Guam, the Philippines (where Magellan died in 1521) and the Moluccas, and ... and ... and it could have been so beautiful! Instead, the Ministry of Health and the Spanish Institute of Preventive Medicine are monitoring every step on board to ensure that the virus doesn't get a chance. We can only pay tribute to this ambitious endeavour - and wish every single sailor and seafarer on board good health until the arrival day in Cadiz.