Sailing in the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia
An Itinerary and What to Expect
At the northeast corner of the largely rectangular-shaped Island of Sardinia, lies a gorgeously emerald-colored watery archipelago called the Costa Smeralda. This island set and coastline make for an amazing sailing destination, and it is there where NauticEd held its 2023 flotilla comprising of 7 catamarans.
But the Costa Smeralda does not steal all the charm of Sardinia. Rather, the entire island, approximately 140 nautical miles long and 60 nautical miles across, is an incredible compact collection of tall mountain ranges, shear cliff faces dropping 1500 feet into the ocean water, some of the most delicious wines I’ve tasted, a motorcyclists dream for breathtaking winding mountain roads, the sandiest beaches in the Mediterranean – and not to miss mentioning clear warm enough emerald colored water everywhere. All this comes with a rich human history dating 5000 years ago and more.
This all makes Sardinia a dream location for a yacht charter + land tour; especially if you’ve got a bit more time on your hands than the traditional weeklong holiday. Indeed, we purposefully arrived 2 weeks prior to our Emerald Coast sailing trip and stayed an additional week and a bit.
If you’re reading here just for the facts ma’am about sailing in the Costa Smeralda, I’ll address that first. After that we’ll zoom back in time to our arrival and two-week land tour then traverse forward in time to our week-long land travel down the eastern coast after we dropped the boat.
Sailing in the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia
The archipelago of consists of 2 large islands, La Maddalena and Caprera with a dozen other islands scattered around. Part of the area including La Maddalena island is designated as a protected parkland called La Maddalena Park. The sailing area also includes the coastline of Sardinia. All in all, the sailing area is quite small but plenty for 1 or even 2 weeks of discovery. The French island of Corsica lies only 15 miles to the north.
With both Corsica and Sardinia hosting tall mountain ranges, the winds channeling through between the islands can get high – upwards of 30 knots should not be unreasonably expected. For this reason, we list the Costa Smeralda as an “Intermediate Plus” sailing location. Plus, you’d better be confident at your Mediterranean Mooring skills with a cross wind.
Below we provide several itineraries, by which you can see that not everything can be visited in just a 1 week charter.
What takes up so much time when sailing this area is the stunningly gorgeous beaches which is generally unusual for the Med. You just want to hang out all day. But alas you must drop anchor, swim, snack and sip, then pull anchor and move on to the next, and then to the next. In the evening you pull into a marina and visit the night life of the village. Then you do it all over again. The trick is to find the best beaches and stops – of which there are bountiful. Extreme jealousy of yachtie cruisers who hang in this area for the summer months has solidly set in.
When doing a weeklong charter in the Med you typically can only pick up the boat on Saturday late afternoon and you get off the boat at 9am the following Saturday but you must be back in port the Friday night. This gives you 5 nights out. In rare circumstances and only if you book in advance for an extra fee of about €200, your boat will be first on the list for cleaning from the previous charter and you can leave the marina at 2 pm on Saturday (so long as your boat has not suffered any damage from the previous charterer and the cleaning crew has completed their job).
For a Mediterranean charter then, you must choose wisely as to your 5 nights out. We think we did a pretty good job having done tons and tons of digital research on the area combined with accounting for the practicality of distance and sailing speed – and considering the mandatory beach stops. BUT – you must also ensure you have some flexibility built into the plan especially here where the wind can crank to nuclear levels. Even so, from our original plan, we deviated one night on the advice of a local captain we’d hired to skipper one of our flotilla boats. Notably, there is nothing more valuable than local knowledge. For this reason, unless you’re hell-bent on skippering yourself, we always recommend hiring a local skipper to act as your guide for the week. We wrote a good blog article on this exact topic “Why Hire a Skipper”.
Speaking of why hire a skipper … the boats in our flotilla all elected to hire a hostess for the week. And while it is the Med with all the amazing restaurants, everywhere we all still felt it was a value proposition. Most evenings we ate early on board and then would venture out to hit the local wine bars thus not missing out on the nightlife but definitely missing out on the wait for a table and wait for food to arrive. The amount of restaurant money you save definitely covers the hostess’ weekly salary of about €1200 (but note you should plan on a good tip at the end of the week (€100 per person on the boat but with a minimum of €600).
The other benefit is coffee-ready and waiting when you arise with breakfast served. Gorgeous gourmet lunches and charcuterie boards are served in the afternoon. AND they do the dishes!!!!
Our Costa Smeralda Itinerary
Day 0
We chartered out of Cala dei Sardi Marina which is about 15 miles north of Olbia City. At the marina there is nothing to do other than wait for your boat to be ready. There is a small restaurant there and bar and a nice lawn to lay on. The check in process is a bit of a cluster as everyone is also checking in on the same day. So you might wait your turn after you arrive for an hour or two – then wait for your boat to be ready.
For some reason, it takes over half an hour to sign some documents which slows the whole process down. Given that, we’d recommend if going out of this base, then pay for an early check-in option to get your boat by 2pm. The company we used is NSS of which NauticEd are charter agents – we don’t charge you an agency fee when you use NauticEd. It is the same price as going direct but we provide some other advantages of using us. See our blog article on “Why Use an Agent”.
The above kinda makes Saturday a bit of a wasted day (thus “Day 0”) especially if you are running around getting groceries. The nearest grocery store is a taxi ride away and taxis aren’t that prevalent. Note that when you get off the boat on the following Saturday morning MAKE SURE you have a taxi prebooked from several days before or prebook at the base upon check-in. If you don’t you could be waiting for hours.
Here is a link to the Detorri Supper Market in Portisco
Note that there are other marinas and charter companies in the Costa Smeralda that NauticEd can quote and advise if you’re considering chartering in this marvelous area.
Day 1 – Cala Dei Sardi to Porto Cervo
Porto Cervo is a marina for the rich and famous. Prices are way beyond what most can flippantly afford and the marina cost was €350 for one night for our Lagoon 52. Still, it is a must-see and do at least once in a lifetime and a don’t miss. There is a small village with many restaurants and shops with all the big-name brands that you recognize. Super yachts are abound with the lowly $10M dollar ones parked at the end of the quay. They display the $100M ones out front, and besides, they wouldn’t want anyone walking off the ultra-expensive yachts to break a heel walking to the local Gucci shop. LOL
On the way to Porto Cervo for the evening we stopped at several beaches to get the week of emerald water started. We’d definitely recommend Princes beach (Spiaggia del Pincipe). We sailed past the tiny island of Mortorio of which the bay on the southwest would definitely deserve an early stop if you can get out of the marina early enough. The coast headed towards Port Cervo is open to the easterly swell so a well-protected bay stop is Gulfo Pevero.
Spiàggia = Beach
Day 2 – Porto Cervo to La Maddalena Marina Mangiavolpe
Speaking of the lifestyles of the rich and famous, for most of the week we had Jeff Bezos and his three-masted 300 ft gorgeous monstrosity following us around with his 250 ft support ship and helicopters. We tried to get an Amazon delivery of a few extra rolls of toilet paper but we guessed the helicopters were being used for other services.
Our first stop out of Porto Cervo was a bay on the east side of Caprera called Cala Coticcio. It’s a deep water anchorage with impressive rock cliffs (and emerald-colored water). Bezos’ boats followed us in there and then we later sailed off their bow in Golfo Saline on the mainland of Sardinia on our way to La Maddalena Marina Mangiavolpe.
La Maddalena Marina Mangiavolpe is a great stop and a really nice village – it’s a must-stop. There is a large grocery store there which in fact brings up the point of not provisioning too much on your first day. When sailing this area you can reprovision almost every day. At the grocery store, I bought some fresh Mediterranean sardines (when in Sardinia) which I insisted our hostess bake for lunch. Under protest of stinking out the boat, she came out with the most wonderful baked breaded sardine serving – wow! The village also has a good nightlife and restaurants.
Day 3 – La Maddalena Marina Mangiavolpe to Santa Teresa
Many times, Santa Teresa is left off an itinerary because of its distance to the west. But we say it is worth the stop. It is a very well protected marina with a large bustling village on top of the cliff above the marina with a bar with an amazing view. There is lots to do and discover in Santa Teresa so try your best to get there early in the afternoon, despite all the amazing beach stops on the way. Getting to Santa Teresa was directly into a 20 knot wind on this day but given the waves we had a blast getting soaked by lying on the forward tramp with our swimsuits on and goggles on our faces.
Also while in Santa Teresa I shot this top tip for a Sailing Vacation:
Day 4 – Santa Teresa to Porto Cavallo
Here we departed from our original itinerary on the advice of our local skipper to venture to Porto Cavallo which technically is in France just south of Corsica. This is a small resort island not too glitzy but some very famous people own homes here. We had the marina almost entirely to ourselves. Just outside the marina was one of the nicer beaches in the area to swim at with a big difference being that we were the only ones there. A big change from all the other beaches which are generally pretty packed.
With all our boats backed to the dock, we held a rotating progressive dinner on each boat. The hostesses from each boat made a huge amount of delicious food and we all just socialized on the dock and ate and drank the night away. That was fun.
Day 5 – Porto Cavallo to Cannigione
We sailed back to Italy from France where we shot this fun little clip as we crossed the watery border.
One of the problems with enjoying an evening in a marina village with your friends in a cool foreign place is trying to get going early in the morning to enjoy everything the next day has to offer. We weren’t very good at doing this I admit but the advice is sound – get up and get going. Even if the others a sleeping on the boat while you move out. Otherwise, simply you miss out on too much. “Sleep when you are dead”.
The picturesque steps at Arzachena
From Porto Cavallo to Cannigione there are a ton of great stops, but we wanted to get to Cannigione early in the afternoon so that we could to a land visit to Arzachena – a taxi ride inland 10 miles to visit this quaint village with an incredible painted stairway.
A big problem ( at least for American tourists) is that every bloody store closes for a few hours in the afternoon for a siesta. So afternoon shopping and café drinking is out. Despite that, we had a good tour of Arzachena and got the photo.
The port in Cannigione – whew – well that was an interesting challenge of patience and brought to reality what I teach about med mooring your boat. As the skipper, you have to control your boat but also make sure that your crew is listening to you and following your plan NOT the marina workers – now of course you can change your plan to match the desires of the marina workers but you don’t want two opposite agendas going on. In this particular marina, the woman driving the dinghy to direct us was yelling in Italian knowing we don’t speak much more than “Duo Cappocino por favore” and confusing everyone.
Fortunately, my well-trained crew by this time knew not to listen and we just perfectly docked the boat – not quite to her liking but our stern was square to the dock where instead she wanted us cranked off 30 degrees which would not have worked. In addition, her dock workers could not tie a simple cleat hitch knot or throw a line. In the end, we thought it was funny. Keep your crew tight and following your lead when docking.
The village of Cannigione is large with lots of shops and restaurants and a nice beach to go to for a lazy afternoon swim.
Here’s a selfie video discussing the disgusting slime line and the marina dock crew. Top tip – wash your hands afterward really well.
Day 6 – Cannigione to Base Cala Dei Sardi
At Cannigione Marina, there is also a fuel dock to fill up before you take the boat back. So as long as you plan on mostly sailing back it is a good idea to fill here rather than at the base marina where everyone is trying to fill at the same time. P.S. The Marina Fuel dock worker confirmed that the dock person from the day before is crazy.
Here is a quick selfie summary video I shot of Cannigione and our Sardinia flotilla wrap up.
First stop after leaving Cannigione was Spiaggia del Grande Pevero.
Later on after leaving Spiaggia del Pevero, the wind really cranked up to 30 knots. But we were able to find the most protected gorgeous little beach all to ourselves. It was also a good stop since it was 20 minutes motor to the base where we arrived sad-faced at the designated 6pm time on Friday.
What an amazing flotilla this was – we had 58 guests and 8 local staff spread out among the boats. Every day was different, the wind and weather changed throughout. The water was warm (ish enough), crystal emerald clear, and everyone was amazing.
Still there was much wine and food left over for a good parting party that night.
Day 7
Well, it is get up early and get off the boat day. Remember – organize a taxi prior don’t wait for today. We got lucky others did not and had to wait a long time.
For us, I rode a taxi to the airport and picked up a rent car for the coming trip by land down the east coast. See our land trip blog article – coming soon.
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