This will be an atypical summer for the royal family. Before the end of August, the King will have to attend the round of consultations to propose a candidate for the presidency of the Government; Princess Eleonor will enter Zaragoza's General Military Academy on August 17 and, shortly after, Infanta Sofia will travel to Wales to begin the first year of international baccalaureate at Atlantic College. The stay of the Kings, the Princess and the Infanta in Marivent will necessarily be short and there are no other plans to be copied from those scheduled in other years.
The first observation is that the King has arrived on the island, as in previous years, ahead of the rest of his family. Felipe VI entered Marivent, where Queen Sofia and Princess Irene of Greece have been for a week, late Wednesday afternoon. Regarding Queen Letícia, the only certainty is that she will appear in public this Sunday to close the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Festival.
To see Princess Eleonor and her sister, Sofia, you will have to wait for the traditional summer pose to be called or, failing that, for a private outing as long as it can be witnessed by the obstinate graphic reporters, attentive to any movement of the royal family outside the walls of the Marivent complex.
It was precisely the work of a group of photographers, tireless road runners, that made it possible to discover yesterday that the King, after receiving the representatives of the Balearic institutions at the Almudaina palace, went out to sea. Felipe VI, already in a private attitude, accepted the invitation of the owner of a technology company to take a cruise on his ship Windrose of Amsterdam. The impressive sailboat, 40 meters long and with two masts, was anchored in the bay of Palma and the King boarded it from an inflatable boat that left the naval base of Porto Pi. The sailboat, with flag of Malta, sailed from the coast of Palma to that of Andratx and later made the return route with several people on board. The crossing coincided with mealtime and although the rough sea and strong wind were not the best for a quiet lunch, they were for the enjoyment of good lovers of extreme sailing.
Felipe VI's trip to the sea coincided, crossing the Mediterranean and the Peninsula, with the time when King Juan Carlos was training yesterday on board the Bribón in the waters of the Pontevedra estuary. Without being sought, the coincidence ended up putting, once again, the focus on the obvious fact that both King Juan Carlos and King Felipe share, at least, their fondness for nautical sports and for the sea that the father instilled in the son, following the family tradition.
This paternal inheritance has no continuity in King Felipe's two daughters, who were too young during the years when grandmother Sofia financed the sailing courses at the school in Calanova, in Mallorca, for the rest of her grandchildren. Neither Elionor nor Sofia seem inclined to water sports and they have rarely been seen on a boat beyond occasional visits to the Aifos, the Navy sailboat with which the King competes in the Mapfre King's Cup, and the numerous occasions on which they have made the crossing from Mallorca to Cabrera.
Until now, all the appearances of Princess Eleonor and Infanta Sofia in Mallorca, since they were babies, have been on the mainland and in the company of their parents, Felipe and Letícia, sometimes only with their mother, and sometimes, the less numerous, all with Queen Sofia.
The King's mother has not yet appeared in the isolation that arrived there on the 20th. It is expected that on August 3rd she will be with the kings Felipe and Letícia, host of the reception that will be offered to authorities and society Balearic civil in the gardens of Marivent. There are no more events planned for the summer calendar of the Kings in Mallorca, beyond the impression that this year their stay will be shorter and more absent.
