The Azores high has meant there hasn't been too much wind on the second half of the crossing but the arrivals this morning said the past 24 hours sailing have been good with a steady northerly breeze. As you can see from the photos in the gallery and on facebook the Azores high makes for some great shorts weather here on the islands. It's practically summertime and the beach across from the marina is busy each day and it means crews can head off and explore. 'Song of the Sea' have already been up to the Caldera at the top of Faial and we saw 'Widago' heading out to take the 20min ferry across to nearby Pico.
We often mention that we are lucky with the weather right now and remember different conditions over the years. Looking through the archives to ARC Europe 2010 we have found this photo from here in Horta where the weather was very different, cold and wet for the whole week!
Today though its all sunshine and smiles, Belafonte arrived at 330pm making it 27 rally yachts in port and Rally Control has been making use of their new 'rapid response vehicle' to get around the marina.
Once cleared customs yachts move over to be rafted up on the famous harbour wall. Everywhere you look and walk there are paintings from the yachts that have sailed through Horta over the years and crews are starting to bring their wall painting designs to life. Here we see Free Spirit at the early stages of their painting, and on the left one from Kinship who sailed in ARC Europe 2012 who's painting is holding up well.