Pictures: Navy cadets rigged up for long haul

Picture / Paul Estcourt

Their mission was to sail around the world, navigating by sail the three southern capes in a 90m long ship with three masts. Eight months on, the latest bunch of Mexican Navy cadets have nearly completed that task.

Yesterday they arrived in Auckland, their second-to-last port, standing in the rigging of the training barque Cuauhtemoc. The ship, which can accommodate 90 trainees and 186 officers and crew, was built in Bilbao, Spain in 1983 and has since sailed more than 409,286 nautical miles.

Known as the "ambassador and gentleman" of the seas, Cuauhtemoc has trained 24 classes of officers from the Mexican Naval Academy.

The cadets set sail last December. When complete the journey via Cape Horn (Chile), the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) and Cape Leeuwin (Australia) will have taken them 28,646 nautical miles in 292 days. Elizabeth Binning