Saturday was a busy day in Horta with a Skippers’ briefing in the morning, a tour around the island of Faial and the Prize Giving for leg 2, St George’s - Bermuda to Horta - Azores, sponsored by the Azores Tourism Board.
The tour around Faial headed first to the east coast where the other islands from the central group of Azores can be seen. After the tour stopped at the volcano caldera that has a diameter of 2km and finished on the east tip of the island at the Volcano Interpretation Center where the Prize Giving for leg 2 took place.
The Interpretation Center of Capelinhos Volcano, showcases the Faial's Natural Park and was nominated for European Museum of the Year 2012. It was here that Filipe Macedo, the Director of the Azores Tourism Board together with Armando Castro, Horta Marina Manager and representing Portos dos Azores, Susana representing the Clube Naval and João Fatias, Inspector of the Frontier Police, welcomed the crews from ARC Europe and presented the prizes.
Each crew was given a plaque engraved with individual yacht names as a memento for their Atlantic crossing and landfall in Horta. Prizes were also presented for third, second and first place positions for divisions A, B and Multihulls. The crew from Orion also won a special prize for standing by Windarra and reporting daily to Rally Control. Click here to check results and corrected times.
Suzana Tetlow, on behalf of WCC, received from the Tourism Director a plaque to commemorate another successful ARC Europe in the Azores.
After a fantastic Prize Giving to finish off a great stopover in Horta, the fleet will set sails again from 0630LT and had South-East to Terceira for a short but diverse programme on the next island.