On Wednesday July 23, at 9.30 am, the “Hellas-Azores” mission was launched from the Port of Thessaloniki, northern Greece. “Hellas-Azores” is considered one of the longest naval missions ever.
Four seamen, three Greek (Thomas Panagiotopoulos, Spyros Goniotakis and Alexander Veis) and one Italian (Cristiano Segnini), have started a long journey of 3,000 miles from Greece to Azores on a 10-meter inflatable boat.
A farewell ceremony took place in front of the hotel Makedonia Palace in the presence of local authorities, journalists, TV crews, the Suzuki marine of Greece and many sea lovers. Many inflatable boats were at the marina and symbolically travelled along the mission boat for a few miles.
Under the auspices of Thessaloniki 2014: European Youth Capital City, the mission aims to spread the message ” The Mediterranean unites us” to the world. The final destination is Ponta Delgada, the largest port and capital of the islet cluster of Azores while the intermediate stations are Naples, Marseilles, Barcelona and Lisbon.
The journey is expected to be completed by August 20 to 25 depending on weather conditions. The last part of the journey is the most difficult, as it involves the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from Portugal to Azores. The crew estimates that to cover this distance (more than 800 nautical miles) they will need two days and two nights, without fuel replenishment, which highlights their mission as one of the ultimate European sea events of 2014.
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