Good Day? Bad Day? Sad Day for Sure!

Toodle-oo! – our sailboat of 13 years, in which we’ve lived for the past 8 years and in which we’ve travelled more than 40,000 miles to 35 different countries is SOLD!

We wish the new owners, Bruce and Erika, fun times, great voyages and happy memories in the future.

… What’s next?

For Sale

Performance Bluewater Cruiser

2007 Outbound 44 Bluewater Cruiser “Toodle-oo!”

$ SOLD $

For sale by owner. Located in Lagos, Portugal

Toodle-oo! is an immaculately cared for 2007 Outbound 44 now available after completing an extensive 8 year voyage to Canada, the Caribbean, Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

She is a solent rigged, aft-cockpit, sloop designed as an easily driven offshore cruiser for serious ocean voyaging. Her sail plan and interior layout are designed to maximize comfort for cruising sailors with long distance plans. She has been continuously upgraded and is fully in commission and ready for an ocean passage!

Specifications

  • Designer: Carl Schumacher
  • Launch Year: 2007  
  • Length: 44′ – (13.41M)
  • Beam: 13ft 6in (4.1M)
  • Draft: 6ft 5in (2M)
  • Displacement: 28,000lbs
  • Fuel Capacity: 190gal (720L)
  • Water Capacity: 200gal (760L)
  • Builder: Hanshen Yacht Building Company
  • Hull #27
  • Hull Material: Fibreglass/GRP
  • Engine make: Yanmar turbo 75HP (55KW)
  • Max speed: 8.5 knots
  • Cruise speed: 7 knots

Her solid fiberglass construction offers the displacement required to give the yacht an easy and forgiving motion. Inside she offers comfort, style and practicality, with light, space, head room, and functionality. Her two berths are both extremely generous, in particular the very comfortable and roomy stateroom in the bow. The U shaped galley is functional both at sea and at anchor with large fridge/freezer and generous storage.

The design boasts an internally ballasted fin keel and a semi balanced rudder which utilizes the strength and tracking ability of a skeg with the added performance of a balanced blade. It’s a perfect marriage of old school building with new school design. Hull and keel molded as a single lamination providing an encased keel with no keel bolts. 6,500lbs of lead in molded keel bulb followed by 3,500lbs in casing for a total of 10,000lbs ballast.

Toodle-oo! is impressively outfitted with all the equipment needed for extended blue water voyaging including large capacity water-maker, generator, solar array and wind-gen – and supports both 110 and 230volt AC systems seamlessly. An extensive inventory of spares is included to support this world cruising yacht.

Toodle-oo! is in Lagos, in Portugal’s beautiful Algarve region, famous for its hospitality and beaches plus great access with the international airport in Faro. The yacht is ideally positioned to start your voyage whether it be into the Mediterranean, up to northern Europe, across the Atlantic to the Caribbean or wherever you want to explore.

Toodle-oo! stands completely ready to take you wherever you want to go!

For further information contact Bill Balme:

bill@toodleoo.com

WhatsApp +44 7902 591414

Private sale with contract and financial arrangements managed by yacht brokers Anchor Yachts (USA) or Red Ensign (UK/EU)

The enjoyment of a secluded anchorage…

Toodle-oo! Details

Thank you for your interest in Toodle-oo! Here is more detail about the boat – and if you have questions, please contact me.

2007 Outbound 44 Bluewater Cruiser “Toodle-oo!”

SOLD

For sale by owner. Located in Lagos, Portugal

  • Designer: Carl Schumacher
  • Launch Year: 2007  
  • Length: 44′ – (13.41M)
  • Beam: 13ft 6in (4.1M)
  • Draft: 6ft 5in (2M)
  • Displacement: 28,000lbs
  • Fuel Capacity: 190gal (720L)
  • Water Capacity: 200gal (760L)
  • Builder: Hanshen Yacht Building Company
  • Hull #27
  • Hull Material: Fibreglass/GRP
  • Engine make: Yanmar turbo 75HP (55KW)
  • Max speed: 8.5 knots
  • Cruise speed: 7 knots

Designed by Carl Schumacker to Phil Lambert’s exacting design criteria:   “I was convinced we could develop a boat with the capacity required for serious cruising, with sufficient comfort to encourage living aboard, and with the added safety that comes with performance and handling,” he said. “But too often, that quest for performance led me to vessels that were too exotic, expensive, and uncomfortable. I wanted a solid-glass hull-heavy, yes, but safe, and well suited for hard offshore work. I felt we could still achieve high performance through sophisticated shape, a powerful rig, and by keeping the weight well away from the ends.”

Above Deck – (click on any photos to enlarge) –

The aft cockpit is large and comfortable in a seaway providing a wonderful platform for enjoying the ocean passage as well as the company of good friends in anchorages around the world.

She has a Monitor windvane self-steerer which is mounted on a custom swinging gate system which allows easy on and off access via the swim platform when not in use.

The large primary winches are in easy reach of the helmsman while two cabin-top winches (one electric) manage the aft-led lines.

The full enclosure, and sun shades, ensure a comfortable environment no matter what the weather and the wraparound pushpit provides excellent security.

In addition to access to the ‘garage’, there are three lockers in the cockpit: a capacious lazarette to starboard, propane locker to port and a transom locker, ideal for a 6 person liferaft.

Wide side decks, effective non-skid, high lifelines and mast pulpits provide security when moving forward and working at the mast or deploying the carbon fiber spinnaker pole.

Forward is a large watertight sail locker where light air sails and ground tackle is stowed.

Above the cockpit bimini, on an elegant stainless frame is a 680W solar array, which combined with the wind generator is sufficient to charge batteries, heat water and power the induction hob.

Below Deck – (click on any photos to enlarge) –

Three broad steps provide easy access to the light and airy belowdecks. Toodle-oo! is beautifully finished in warm cherry wood and has a traditional teak and holly sole.

The well ventilated U-shaped galley is very practical and has ample storage for the most demanding chef. Cooking can utilize both the Force 10 propane stove or the 230V induction hob. The galley is open to the main salon so that the chef can enjoy the company of invited guests while preparing the feast.

The functional salon provides easy access to seating around the port-side table as well as allowing enormous storage capacity both behind and beneath each seat. The starboard settee also has a bar cabinet and a functioning small table for when larger parties are entertained. One large and two small forward facing hatches provide excellent ventilation.

The salon floor is slightly raised giving excellent visibility to the outside world and providing space for the four diesel tanks and two water tanks below the waterline, contributing to the overall stability of the yacht.

Forward, the light and airy master berth has a queen-sized island berth with good access on both sides of the bed, which has enormous storage capacity below and stowage cupboards on both sides via sliding doors. The berth is provided with two large hanging lockers, two cupboards, seven large deep drawers and a vanity. A hatch, six opening ports and two dorade vents provide excellent ventilation.

The head with separate shower stall is located opposite the galley.

The aft cabin provides a spacious queen-sized berth with storage below and to the sides, with a hanging locker and cupboard storage. The berth has a hatch and three opening ports providing excellent ventilation.

Aft of the galley is the navigation area with up-to-date electronics and a large chart table for route planning. This area provides an excellent place for monitoring all systems and navigation while underway.

Behind the navigation station is the ‘garage’ where many boat systems are maintained – including generator, watermaker, large chest freezer and stowage for tools and spares. With the port-side cockpit seat open, headroom in the garage is unlimited!

More information about Outbound Yachts can be found here: https://outboundyachts.com/

Equipment List

Sails

Main, Genoa and Solent were made in 2012 by Quantum Sails.

  • Main is slab reefed (3) with lazyjacks and ladders on the boom. Halyard, mainsheet and reefing lines led to cockpit clutches. Boom preventers and pole handling lines set-up on port and starboard, lines led through clutches beside cockpit
  • 125% Genoa on headstay furler
  • 105% Solent jib on inner headstay furler
  • Code Zero (Z Sails) on it’s own furler
  • Asymmetrical spinnaker (Sanders Sails) new 2022 – in sock
    • Code Zero and spinnaker fly from short removable bowsprit extension
  • Hank on Storm jib for removable babystay
  • Spare genoa

Propulsion

  • Engine: Yanmar   55KW, 75 MHP, turbocharged
    Engine Hours: ~ 5,100hrs (fully inspected/serviced by Sopormar December ’23 – injectors serviced by Bosch – new nozzles)
  • Luke feathering prop (2016)
  • PSS Shaft seal (2023)

Rig

  • New standing rigging 2016 – inspected 2023
  • Standard Outbound solent rig – Sparcraft
  • 2 x Lewmar 68 primary winches
  • 2 x Lewmar 48 winches on cabin top (one electric winch)
  • 2 x Lewmar 40 winches on mast
  • Sailtec adjustable hydraulic backstay
  • Pneumatic/mechanical vang/kicker
  • Carbon Fiber pole on mast track

Ground Tackle

  • Lighthouse 1500 windlass – controlled at bow or helm
  • 77lbs (35Kg) SPADE on 75M 5/16” (8mm)HT Chain and 100M Brait rode
  • Two 100M shore lines
  • Fortress FX37 stern/kedging anchor + 100M Brait line (doubles as drogue rode)
  • Galerider drogue

Electronics

All instrumentation was professionally installed in 2016 with Raymarine Axiom instruments (depth, wind, small MFD for speed/direction at companionway), 9” Axiom Pro MFD at helm pod, 12” Axiom Pro at Nav Station, Raymarine hydraulic autopilot

  • Icom M604 VHF
  • Icom M802 SSB with Pactor IV Modem
  • Independent Furuno GPS

Electrical

This boat is fully capable in both 110VAC and 230VAC

  • 600AH Victron LiFePO4 battery bank (2022)
  • Victron Lynx BMS and Distribution
  • Victron Cerbo GX with Touch screen
  • All required safeties in accordance with new ABYC recommendations
  • Victron Multiplus II 3000W – 230V inverter and 120A charger
  • Mastervolt 100A, 230V Charger
  • Mastervolt 2500 W – 110V inverter and 100A charger
  • Nextgen 5KVA generator – 230V
  • 680W Solar through 4 MPPT’s
  • Air-X wind generator with blue blades (quiet)
  • 100A Balmar alternator and 614 regulator
  • 120AH FLA start battery (2023)

Fluid Storage

  • Diesel: 190gal (720l) in 4 tanks below floor
  • Water: 200gal (760l) in 2 tanks below floor
  • Hot water tank: 13gal (50l)
  • Holding tank: 25gal (100l)
  • Propane: 40lbs (18kg) in 2 tanks in dedicated propane locker in the cockpit

Safety

  • EPIRB
  • Personal Locator Beacons (2)
  • Lifesling
  • Landfall Navigation Abandon Ship ditch bag
  • DeLorme ‘inReach’
  • Winslow 6 person liferaft (requires recertification)
  • Handheld VHFs (2)
  • SOS LED Electronic flare
  • Jacklines and tethers (6)

Other Systems

  • Large chest freezer in garage, large fridge/freezer in galley
  • Sea Recovery 40gal/hr (150l/hr) (230V) watermaker
  • Monitor windvane on custom swinging bracket
  • Full cockpit enclosure (2013) with sun shades
  • Achilles 8’6″ (2.6M) lightweight fully inflatable dinghy
  • Epropulsion Spirit 1.0 Plus outboard (2021)
  • Coppercoat antifouling (2019)
  • Espar diesel heating
  • LED dimmable indirect lighting in salon
  • LED task lighting in galley
  • Teak grates in cockpit and shower
  • Installed insect screens for companionway doors and all hatches
  • Ten bottle wine rack
  • Open plate rack in galley
  • Privacy and sun filtering roll-up window shades for large salon windows
  • Fusion entertainment center with interior and cockpit speakers

For further information contact Bill Balme:

bill@toodleoo.com

WhatsApp +44 7902 591414

Northern Ionian

The only thing the eastern end of the Gulf of Corinth offered us was a reunion with Tinike and Herbert on Zahree at the strange little port of Mesolongi at the exit of the Corinth. We sailed with them and Mokendeist to a small anchorage on the western side of the mainland and then took off with Mokendeist for Vasiliki on Lefkas.

We enjoyed the anchorage in Vasiliki which was inundated with windsurfers and small sailboats making for entertaining viewing. We also rented a car with Stefan and Anne to tour around the interesting island.

We moved onto Corfu which was a disappointing island (neither of us took a single photograph!) – quite dirty and with limited anchoring possibilities – though we were able to reacquaint ourselves with Ian and Jackie on Nova Jean.

Where to next?? Montenegro why not??!

Athens and on to the Gulf of Corinth

We treated ourselves to an expensive berth at Pyreas – right in the heart of the activity and with decent train access to Athens and the Acropolis. Despite the crowds, the Acropolis was fascinating. Lots of broken down ancient ruins, crawling with wannabe historians!

The icing on the cake was that Laurie had managed to secure seats at the Odeion of Herodes Atticus amphitheater for a performance of Madame Butterfly. While I’m not an Opera fan, the experience of sitting in a 2000 year old amphitheatre and watching/listening to an un-amplified performance was fantastic!

A gastronomic delight was to be had at Laurie’s chosen restaurant. We walked past it 3 times before recognizing that yes, this was the entrance!

After Athens we continued west – and through the impressive Corinth Canal – the most expensive (per mile) waterway in the world! But it took 300+ miles off our journey towards the Ionian.

Unfortunately, the gulf of Corinth was uninspiring – other than a fantastic hour-long chase by a large group of dolphins that insisted on spinning underwater while leading our bow.

We did stop to look at more ruins in Delphi…

Next stop: The Ionian…

Sporades and Cyclades to Athens

As I write this, we’ve crossed over the Aegean, gone through the Corinth Canal and up the Ionian and are now in the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro! So this and the next post will only be quick summaries of our travels so that I can catch up! (Sorry!)

After Lipsi, we sailed (yes really!) north to Arki where we attempted to anchor in three different locations but failed at each attempt to get the anchor to set – so we headed further north to Fournoi where we found a really favorite anchorage right on the southern tip of the island.

We stayed in Fournoi a couple of days and then decided to move up the island some – but again, couldn’t get a comfortable set on the anchor, and in the end decided to simply move on again – this time to Samos and an anchorage on the north coast to gain protection from the southerly winds…

In the gap between Fournoi and Samos we experienced a dramatic acceleration zone with winds blowing 30, gusting to 45knots. Very uncomfortable and occasionally we’d see the wind falling off the high mountains of Samos looking like steam. Unfortunately, when putting in the third reef to the main, we managed to rip the back of the sail (leech) as we turned towards our anchorage with over 50 knots over the bow.

We rely on the App ‘Navily’ for our anchorage information – and this one spot had only one review – but at least it was a good one! As we got closer to it, we fell into the shadow of the mountains, the winds dropped and we were able to anchor safely in front of a very pretty stony beach. We could watch the wind hitting the sea just a few hundred yards behind us, but our spot was nice and calm. Exhausted!

We got an early start the following morning in rain – and headed to the south side of Samos to gain protection from the northerly ‘Meltemi’ winds and planned to stay there a few days (turned into 8!) and make repairs to the mainsail. Samos was really nice – we got to tour all over by car. Most interesting was the underground aqueduct – they managed to dig from both sides of the hill and meet in the middle! (Something the Brits and French struggle with!)

Our next planned stop was Ikaria – but once again, when we entered the gap between Samos and Fournoi we experienced the same acceleration zone, to turned tail and sailed with the wind back to our favorite anchorage at the southern end of Fournoi. What a great bailout! We stayed several days!

Finally we left Fournoi and headed towards the Northern Cyclades – specifically Rinia. Quite a long passage – 65 miles and along the way, had a close encounter with another yacht (Breukens) going a similar direction – and both of us were flying spinakers! Thank you Astrid for the excellent shots of us!

From our anchorage on Rinia we were able to dinghy over to the island of Delos – the old center of the Greek nation. It’s only a small island but gains protection from all wind angles, so was a natural place for a large city. And boy are the ancient ruins at Delos huge!

From Rinia, north to Tinos for a few days in a lovely little bay with three tavernas. We sampled two of them – excellent! Had a super walk up to the village high above the anchorage.

Today’s walk? Up the hill to the town – there must be a pint in it!!!

Then on to Yiaros (Devil’s Island), an uninhabited island that used to house a large prison for political prisoners. Unfortunately, anchoring there is notoriously difficult and we were unable to get comfortable in the small space – so we didn’t stop but continued on to Kithnos, to a wonderful anchorage which featured both a hot spring (sadly only bathtub sized) and a sandy isthmus between Kithnos and the smaller island of Loukas.

While there we watched the filming of a short Nescafe commercial… The crew had been setting up for days, when the actors arrived, they spent the whole day (7am – 7pm) doing the filming, and followed by another couple of days taking down the sets – for a commercial that last maybe 30 seconds!!! Great fun to watch though!

We were able to leave our anchorage, head into town for some supplies, then come back to the other side of the isthmus where we were able to complete a couple of nice walks.

We finally made it to mainland Greece, arriving under the temple to Poseidon – a quite dramatic relic right on top of the hill.

Northern Dodecanese

Kalimnos

Our trip from Kos to Kalimnos was a motorboat ride which culminated in a nasty beat into wind and waves, so rather than continue on to Kalimnos town, we decided to head up the leeward east coast of the island to several interesting possible anchorages. The first was idyllic – but try as we might, we were unable to get the anchor to set sufficiently – so we moved on to Vathys – which turned out to be very narrow and not very enticing! Our third choice was a sheltered anchorage with mooring balls and we made our way in and collected the first buoy we came to and settled in for the evening. Cocktails were served!

Bring your own mooring ball!!!

When I got up to refresh my drink, I casually observed out the window that there was a group of sailboats not far away. It then dawned on me that we were supposed to be a part of that group of sailboats! When I came up on deck I found that we were still tied to the mooring buoy, but it wasn’t attached to the sea floor anymore! We’d drifted 200-300 meters – fortunately straight out of the harbour and hadn’t hit anything.

We tied the mooring to our stern and motored back in to the harbour to find another buoy – and then set an anchor alarm!

Leros

With the westerly winds we’d been experiencing we were unable to take advantage of the west coast of Kalimnos, so instead we moved north to the next island, Leros – and stopped at Agia Marina (a town not a marina!) and anchored out. Good thing we did as when we inspected the quay where we would have med moored, we saw that for sure we would have touched bottom and risked another bent rudder!

Agia is very pretty – much more so than the main town of Lakki on the western side – which we cycled to.

We were here for Easter celebrations – and it seems the islanders like setting off the loudest fireworks (bangers) possible. The noise of some of them is just incredible! I think they use dynamite! We’d be quietly pottering around the boat and then BOOM – which echoed all through the bay.

We moved onto a secluded anchorage in the north of Leros – Blefuti which was really pretty and very quiet. Unfortunately I’d underestimated out anchor position a little and we came close to some rocks during a wind change. I shortened the scope to 3:1 to get away from them – and immediately started dragging right on to them! So we had to re-anchor (in the same bay)… After 3 or 4 attempts we succeeded… Getting quite frustrated with the performance of our anchor – or is it the challenging sea surface we’re finding in Greece?!

Patmos

Patmos is the northernmost island of the Dodecanese and an Israeli couple we met in Blefuti – Samuel and Shanne on Aurora – were heading out there and described a nice bay with well maintained moorings – so we decided to follow.

Unfortunately, on the way there, the head blocked up again – and this time it was serious! So we stopped midway in deep water and I jumped in the dinghy and started the lovely task of freeing things up with a long piece of narrow hose. Success was achieved, but it felt somewhat temporary… I’d have to look to replace hoses and diverter valves when next possible.

The recommended bay was nice indeed and protected from virtually all wind directions. A single taverna was open and we enjoyed a lunch there.

After a couple of days we moved upto to a very secluded anchorage just 4 or 5 miles north – but despite trying 6 times, we were unable to get the anchor to hold. Very frustrating! So we made our way back to the moorings and as soon as we got there, we unhooked our Spade anchor and replaced it with our spare Mason Supreme that has been sitting in the sail locker for years. We’ll see how this one does.

It was great that we came back here – because we’d been told that the marina at the bottom of this bay is actually quite capable – so we took a dinghy ride down there and found a very well organized and well stocked operation. I went there looking to buy a simple plastic handle for one of our diverter valves and ended up coming out with new diverter valves and 7mtrs of hugely expensive hose – for a cool €600! I spent the next day finally sorting out a permanent fix for the head situation!

Our visit in Patmos was also a nice social affair – we met Mal and Karen on Talisker and had drinks aboard Toodle-oo! (and the following night on Talisker) and then Ethel settled on a mooring near us and we had Mal Karen, Michael and Roseanne on Toodle-oo! again. We had previously met Ethel in Kardamaina, Kos last year – right after bending our rudder!

We got a lot of use out of our bikes on Patmos – cycling over to the main town of Skala several times – mostly to get provisions. One time we were there, Laurie managed to leave her handbag on a bench and only after we’d cycled all the way back to the dinghy (3 hilly kilometers!) did she realize… I cycled back to find that it had been (actually was still in process of being) turned in to the police. Even though I identified it – including unlocking Laurie’s phone and showing pictures of us – they insisted that Laurie had to sign for it – so I got a ride in the back of the police car back to Laurie and the dinghy! We never once feared that the bag would have been stolen – how nice is that!

Lipsi

Our final stop in the Dodecanese was Lipsi and we chose to anchor in a bay right in the south – to gain protection from more northerly Meltemi winds. The anchor set first time! Woo-hoo!

It was a very nice (if very brief) stop – though none of the tavernas around the bay were open for the season yet – so we walked over to the main town – Lipsi – to take a look. It’s pretty enough but very quiet without any tourists! Unfortunately they’ve rather messed up the charm of the place with lots of concrete parking areas around the harbor. They must have 10 times more parking spaces than cars on the island!

However, we did get an excellent lunch at a Taverna that has been open year round (sort of) and stuffed ourselves silly!

Just 2 boats in the anchorage – with Kalimnos in the background.

Next stop: Fournoi in the Eastern Sporades…

Kos – Rudder Replacement

With a lift out scheduled for early Monday morning, we arrived to a slip on Sunday and made preparations… Knowing that as soon as they lifted us they’d be removing the rudder, we made sure the cockpit locker and garage lockers were empty, giving access to all the rudder’s mechanicals and then made our way to an Airbnb where we would be staying while Toodle-oo! was on the hard.

Box full of Rudder!

On Monday morning we met with ‘yard manager’ Spiros who would be orchestrating our repairs. I also got to see our new rudder – it really had arrived!

Lift-out was at 09:00 (ish) and they took us directly to our designated short term parking spot. By the time we’d arrived at our spot I had most of the internal rudder mechanisms removed, just waiting on the final bolts to be removed.

Heavy! The shipped rudder weight was 240kgs – of which 200 must have been the rudder. It took 5 men to manhandle it out of the boat and lower it to the ground. Now the fun begins!

First thing in the afternoon we transferred both new and old rudders to Kos Marina’s friendly workshop where the old one would be measured and holes accurately drilled (at the right angle!) into the new one to ensure a good fit aboard Toodle-oo! Due to the size of the rudder the workshop manager decided that he’d have to do the work outside and bring the drilling machine to the rudder – this would take a couple of days.

The new rudder came with new bearings. The old bottom one had come out with the rudder, but the top one was still in place, held by four large cap screws. Even though every other nut and bolt in the rudder system had been easy to remove, of these four only one would budge! After a frustratingly long time, I managed to get two more to come, but the fourth broke! I had to drill it out in order to free the bearing. Once out I was able to drill and tap another hole for a replacement fourth cap screw. We were now ready for when the rudder returned.

Toodle-oo! has the Pox!

We assessed the state of our hull below the waterline, which was covered in small Pox-like blisters. Initially I thought this might be a Coppercoat (our antifouling regimen) application problem, while Spiros figured the hull was showing early signs of Osmosis. In the end, and in consultation with Coppercoat Ltd., we concluded that the blisters were originating between layers of a barrier coat we had had applied back in 2012… Our treatment decision was to ignore any un-popped blisters and concentrate on only popped ones (only about 500 or so! ☹) by sanding them with the intention of then painting new Coppercoat on the pox when painting the rudder…

While the rudder was out, the propeller shaft could be removed without having to take the prop off the shaft (something I wasn’t looking forward to). I wanted to remove the shaft in order to replace two critical items – a ‘PSS’ seal that seals around the shaft and prevents the ocean from entering the boat, and the ‘Cutlass’ bearing that supports the propshaft just ahead of the propeller. Both items are wear items and due for replacement. All I needed to do was disconnect the coupling that tied propshaft to gearbox, remove the coupling and the propshaft should slide rearwards out of the boat…

Finally!!!

I estimated that it would take me three hours to remove the propshaft… After I’d been pounding on it with my new heavy duty hammer for several hours, I decided to consult the book, and the fantastically helpful group of Outbound owners on our forum. Oh shit! What have I gotten myself into??  The book indicated that the propshaft coupling could be an absolute bear to remove and several Outbound owners had resorted to cutting the propshaft in two and replacing both the shaft and the coupling!!!

I struggled on for two days and finally threw in the towel having only moved the coupler about 1cm with another 5 or 6 to go… I asked Spiros to take a look and he arranged for his engineer to come and remove it. And that’s what he did – using a special puller designed for the job (along with my new big hammer!) and after a couple of hours the coupler was off! Phew! After that, the removal and replacement of the seal and bearing was straightforward thankfully.  

When the rudder came back from the workshop, it immediately looked like the angle of the hole was off – but I thought I had a workaround that would compensate…

Spiros arranged for us to be lifted to install the new rudder – something that should basically take about 30 minutes. It was then that we found out that the rudder was a different shape from the old one – in that the back of the rudder fouled the hull before the shaft was in far enough! We had decided against getting a new rudder made in Turkey on the basis that we were confident Outbound would be able to build a new one accurately and correctly… best laid plans…

The ever-inventive Spiros came up with a relatively quick solution – we’ll cut off a wedge at the top of the rudder to allow for clearance! Since the rudder cost over $9,000 I wasn’t too keen on taking a saw to it – but couldn’t see another way – so off it went for the chop! They did a quick job of it – cutting through the solid fiberglass and the fairing and covering with a couple of layers of GRP. The following day they lifted us again and the installation was successful! Phew!

With the rudder now installed we could set about painting the Coppercoat to rudder and the hull pox. In the end the process went well. We’ll see how effective the painting of the pox was in due time.

While out of the water we arranged for a surveyor to review the rudder repair – and took advantage by arranging for a full boat survey (which we had to get done for our insurance company). The surveyor came and was interested in both the rudder replacement and the blistering hull. It was while he was studying the rudder that we realized that the rudder turned far less to starboard than it did to port. This can only have been caused by the hole being drilled at the wrong angle. I thought I had a workaround – but quickly realized that I was mistaken and we did indeed have a problem. (What else can go wrong?)

Consultation with the Outbound owners group – and indeed the former owner of Outbound Yachts – concluded that the remedy lay in removing the stops that prevented the rudder from over-travelling to port or starboard and having them altered to facilitate equal swing to port and starboard.

The following morning we arranged to meet with the surveyor and Spiros that afternoon to discuss the rudder remedy. Spiros quickly concluded that we should alter the rudder stops! The surveyor concurred and within two or three hours, including two trips to the workshop, Spiros had the stops modified and replaced. The remedy worked – equal throw to port and starboard. We could splash in the morning!

After splashing, a quick test on the way to our slip revealed a nice smooth and even rudder operation and no vibration from the propshaft – the effort was worthwhile! A formal sea trial the following morning confirmed all is well.

Kalimnos here we come!

Rhodes

Rhodes was closed! We’re too early…

We’d rented a car for 2 days so that we could do the island justice. Happened to be Monday and Tuesday. Rhodes town is situated on the top (North East) point of the island so we decided the first day we’d go down the center of the island to the east coast down at Lindos.

The interior of Rhodes is pretty but not spectacular in any way – but it was fun winding along the narrow roads and not meeting another single vehicle until we got close to the coast. Once on the coast, clusters of large hotels – mostly empty in March – showed that Rhodes is a major tourist destination with most folk attracted to the beaches and warm weather. Unfortunately, many of the beaches are stony – though there are several sand beaches.

We arrived in Lindos to find it closed. The only activity were locals making places ready for the coming tourist season. The castle sits high over the town below, but we didn’t have the urge to climb up to it, so we wandered through the ‘streets’ looking for a place to enjoy a beer and perhaps some lunch. No such luck – Lindos is closed!!!

Cracking anchorage!

We made our way back towards Toodle-oo! stopping off at Lidl for a pretty major provisioning event.

The following day we went down the west coast. Again, lots of evidence of hotels and beach bars – mostly closed for the off-season. We arrived at our first destination of the day – a Monastery – but guess what? It was closed! This time, not because of the season but because it was Tuesday! We’d forgotten that all Government run museums and tourist areas are closed on Tuesdays!

We met with two other couples in rental cars in the car park and chatted with them briefly. They too were caught out by Tuesday! However, one of them said they’d been to Lindos on Monday and found a place to eat and drink in the old town… and that the castle was a must see! Oh rats!

We continued our tour, moving away from the coast and up into the hills – where we happened upon some vineyards – and a winery… It was OPEN! First day of the season – and in fact we were the first customers of the year!

We also scored a first – when some weeks later we opened one of the bottles we’d procured there, it was really nice! Always in the past we’ve bought at a winery and it’s like they sell you bottles of something different because as soon as you get home and try it, you find it to be total crap! What made it better is that the owner – a nice young man in his 5th year of business – threw in an extra bottle since we were his first customers!

On the news that Lindos wasn’t completely closed we decided to head back there and maybe walk up to the castle – and find ourselves a drink… Nope! We confirmed that Lindos is definitely closed, including the castle that we walked up to… don’t know what that guy was smoking!

We scored again when we got back to Rhodes town – a great chandlery with a super selection of familiar products.

Back in Greece!

What’s more Greek than Gyros and Greek Beer???

We left Finike and a lot of new friends behind (for the time being) with the plan of hightailing it to Kos and a rendezvous with our new rudder which has now arrived in Kos. It’s 200 – 300 miles from Finike, so this was going to be a multi-day trip – Kastellorizou, Rhodes, Symi and then Kos.

Kastellorizou

The small island of Kastellorizou is just a stone’s throw from Kas, Turkey. It turned out to be a 35 mile long, slow (must have lots of hull fouling) and boring motorboat ride, but arrival back in Greece was splendid! What a very pretty little town – and an easy place to deal with the paperwork of getting back into Greece.

We spent two nights anchored in Kastellorizou but left early (05:30 – still dark!) for the long 75 mile trip to Rhodes. We intentionally picked a light wind day to ease strain on the rudder and were expecting another long motorboat ride so it was a bonus when the wind came up and by 08:30 we were sailing at 7 knots!

The wind was up and down quite a lot, so we got to play with the spinnaker some, motorsailed some and sailed with the white sails too, managing to keep the speed up and arrived outside Rhodes by 16:30. I contacted George the harbormaster who immediately suggested we not come in as he was expecting significant wind from a direction which would make the harbor difficult! This was unexpected! With no other viable options, we decided to press on to Symi – another 25 miles – aiming for a very protected looking anchorage at Panormitis.

Symi

We sailed for as long as we could, but ended up motoring in order to keep our speed up. We rounded the south west corner of Simi in the dark and managed our way into the very narrow entrance in what would have been pitch black if it wasn’t for the monstrously illuminated monastery! The anchor went down at 20:41 – one of our latest arrival times. It had been a long long day!

The following day we did nothing!

Since there’s not much here at Panormitis other than a large monastery, we decided to move around to the east coast – which would have better protection from coming westerly winds. We had a nice sail into Pedi where we were the only boat at anchor.

Pedi is delightful – but pretty much closed in the pre-season. The town of Symi is just over the hill and though a bus is available to take us between Pedi and Symi, we only managed to catch it once – but the walk was interesting – up and down back steps through the towns.

We departed Simi with a light forecast – which turned out to be wrong and we were sailing upwind towards Rhodes with reefed main and jib! As we approached the coast of Rhodes – a good deal west of our planned berth at Mandraki harbor – the sky got threatening and then a major thunderstorm started. We almost managed to out-run it – but as we made the final turn into Mandraki it overtook and drenched us!

Toodle-oo! surrounded and not quite managing to out-run the thunderstorms!

We managed to get into the harbor without any problems and George had us tie alongside close to the harbor entrance – we were in Rhodes!

We’re still in Rhodes and have a car booked for a couple of days exploring… next chapter…