In early September 2023 I travelled to Alvor, Portugal to show S/Y Tossan to potential buyers. The best way to experience S/Y Tossan is to be onboard and go sailing. I arrived in Alvor on a Saturday evening and the small town was buzzing with people enjoying the restaurants and bars. To find a parking space at this hour proved to be tricky but a short walk later I had managed to get to the dinghy and went to find S/Y Tossan. That is when I reconfirmed what I already knew and had experienced – the effects wild life and the nearby seafood restaurants can have on a boat.
Although I had help cleaning S/Y Tossan only a few days earlier the whole boat was now covered with whatever the seagulls decided to leave behind after hanging out on this marvellous huge deck. The problem with seagulls is international but in Alvor the main problem is during the summer months when the seafood restaurants leave their leftovers for the seagulls to enjoy. In low season the restaurants are closed and the seagulls go elsewhere to eat and digest. At the time of writing I have a solution to all of this, but that is for an upcoming blog.
In the early hours of Sunday we spent a few hours to clean the deck and we made a huge difference. We were now ready to welcome guests onboard.
The Sunday weather offered a great experience with sunshine (ok we had a rain shower too), 12-16 knots of wind and waves slightly bigger than 1 meter. Once everyone was onboard we took a tour of S/Y Tossan, showing the ins and outs. We departed Alvor by the electric engines and steered towards the ocean. Once through the channel we set sails but didn’t want to stretch S/Y Tossan too much so we had 2/3 of the main sail out. Still we did 5-7 knots and very easy manoeuvring. It was a nice afternoon out with great spirit, nice sailing and S/Y Tossan showing off her lovely skills. Thanks to Valerie and her team at wildsandwich.com we had great lunch served.
With a similar setup however slightly less wind, we had a second test sailing two days later. Everyone came back very happy with the sailing and S/Y Tossan’s performance. For those of you who could not make it this time, please see the video and photos below, and reach out to book your test sailing. We are planning for the next test sailing in October so stay tuned for more information.
Video
Photos from the trip
