Sailing for 6 1/2 weeks, looking for itineraries Corsica/Sardinia

[dutchychi]

Hello all,

Greetings from Chicago!

We have a catamaran from Portisco, Sardinia for 6 1/2 weeks starting August 1.
Would like to get advise on itineraries.

Please also let us know the highlights of Sardinia, which places to really see and if it's worth going all the way around Sardinia, pros/cons.

Our thought is to head north from Portisco to the west coast of Corsica, head to the Cote D'azure, along the Italian Riviera, Tuscany, Elba, east coast of Corsica and back to Sardinia.

Many thanks,
Dutchy

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
I'll let the experts answer your questions.
kind regards,

[Charlie]

Hi Dutchy:

We keep our boat in Northern Italy. Furthest South we made it was Elba. Fantastic place. Lots of free anchoring and beautiful. At first we avoided Portoferraio but ended up having a great time there. Good place to anchor if you don't want to pay the dockage fees but a night on the dock is great fun and a fabulous atmosphere. Lights are out around midnight so you can get some sleep. Porto Azzurro is another fabulous spot but the anchorage gets really tight on a Weekend night. If an Easterly blew in there would be a lot of carnage. The town is great and caters to German tourists. Overall we had a great time. We provisioned at the local market. Cavo was really nice as well but there has to be some west in the wind otherwise it is a nasty lee shore. Our first stop there was great our second we had to retreat back to Portoferraio. This year we are headed to Sardinia so maybe we'll cross paths.

As far as info on a circumnavigation it really depends on your cruising style. Our first summer in Italy we travelled a total of about 80km in 6 weeks. There was so much to see we stopped constantly and when we stopped we liked it so much we would stay. Hey there's a castle lets check it out. After that hike we would get on the boat and sail for 7 or 8 miles and then we would say that looks like a nice Church. and so on and so on. Last year was our second summer. We decided to sail harder. We sailed from La Spezia to Elba and back. A total trip of around 235 nm. Our boat only goes about 4 or 5 knots but we broke it up into smaller legs and had a lot of fun. The Italian Waters Pilot is a good source as well as these websites JimB Sail | Helping Skippers plan European Cruises and Portoferraio update | Roaring Girl. The latter is a blog so you have to dig for the info but it is entertaining.

[dutchychi]

Hi Charlie,

Thank you so much for all the great tips!!
Good to know that there is lots of free anchoring in Elba. I looked at the Elba website. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Do you have any tips for the Cinque Terre area?

I will check out the websites you listed :-)

And you never know, we might cross paths.

Take care Nancy

[Charlie]

Hi Nancy:

Do you know how to PM on this site? I will send you a PM with some contact info. As far as Cinque Terre it is beautiful. We went there in our boat and anchored but the coastgaurd came by and politely told us we were not allowed to anchor but to use the mooring buoys. My nephew started getting seasick so we decided to sail back towards La Spezia. As such we didn't get that much info on how to visit by boat. I think that I would like to do it by land next time we visit. By water it is really pretty.

Charlie

[dutchychi]

Hi Charlie,

No clue how to PM on this site. Just started using it.

I have been to Cinque Terre a long time ago, but I was there for only 1 day and would love to go back and hike and do some photography.

Good to hear there are mooring buoys. How long did it take you from Cinque Terre to go back to La Spezia?

Nancy