The Sea Cloud Spirit is getting a prominent and aristocratic godmother. Infanta Elena of Spain, the sister of Spain’s King Felipe VI, will christen the new three-masted full-rigged ship on September 3 in the Port of Palma de Mallorca. The third five-star windjammer from Sea Cloud Cruises was built at the Metalships & Docks shipyard in the northern Spanish Port city of Vigo. After an extraordinary pilgrimage, the champagne bottles consecrated in Santiago de Compostela have arrived for the christening on board the Sea Cloud Spirit.
Immediately after the first contact with Sea Cloud Cruises, and aware of what the construction of the Sea Cloud Spirit meant for Spanish shipping and its uniqueness, Doña Elena agreed to christen the new tall ship. The third 5-star windjammer from Sea Cloud Cruises was built at the Metalships & Docks shipyard in the northern Spanish port city of Vigo.
The champagne, which the godmother will christen the SEA CLOUD SPIRIT with, has been blessed after a pilgrimage of almost 120 kilometres in Santiago de Compostela. The Spanish shipping lawyer and legal representative of Sea Cloud Cruises, Javier Arias-Camisón, kept a promise he made at the beginning of the ship’s construction. After the successful and happy completion of the extraordinary tall ship, he personally brought the champagne for the christening on foot to Santiago de Compostela and had it blessed there.
With two champagne bottles in his backpack, Arias-Camisón carried twice the luggage of a normal pilgrim on his back during the five-day pilgrimage. On his tour, the lawyer did not let himself be stopped, even by painful blisters on his feet. At each pilgrimage stop along the way, the bottles received the obligatory stamp for devout walkers, on the specially made label of the champagne bottles. One of the two bottles will be traditionally shatter on the hull of the Sea Cloud Spirit during the christening. The other bottle will be auctioned off for charity on the maiden voyage from September 14 -24, 2021.
The Sea Cloud Spirit is the modern interpretation of the Sea Cloud ship, the flagship of Sea Cloud Cruises. Like the 90-year-old original, and the Sea Cloud II built in 2001, the new tall ship has the character of a private yacht. The Sea Cloud Spirit will welcome a maximum of 136 guests on board, and will have 85 crew members. Like her two sisters, the Sea Cloud Spirit is traditionally sailed by hand and follows the principles of soft tourism. The maiden voyage begins on September 14 in Rome.
