Two weeks - 450 n.m. - Portisco – Sardinia round-trip - Portisco

This sailing trip is the more exacting among all, so we suggest it for those well experienced crews and for boats over 40 feet. The Sardinia round trip ask you for a day-mean distance of 35 n.m. per day, therefore crew members have to love long sailing. Along this route you will have the chance to visit very ancient and different places and cultures, wilde and desert spots. At the end of the journey, once you leaved the boat, the luggage of emotions and rememberings will be very big.

1° day: Portisco – Cala di Trana - Castelsardo  57 n.m.

Your first sailing will be between the islands of the Arcipelago della Maddalena and Sardinia. You can have a quick stop in Cala di Trana, west of Punta Sardegna. The name of this bay is not usually indicated on most of the sea charts, but you can recognize it from the high sand dunes on its westerly side. Cala di Trana is sheltered from southerly winds and it is 18 n.m. away from Portisco, about 3 hours sailing. If weather conditions doesn’t fit this bay (often swelly), you can go to Cala Corsara, just in front on Spargi island, sheltered from northern and westerly winds. Then you will have to sail for 39 n.m. heading for Castelsardo: more than 6 hours. We advise you to call the harbour offices by telephone at 079-471119, in order to announce your arrival and to ask for the berth availability.

Castelsardo is the last name that this village had in his tricky story. The castle was built around year 1102 by the Doria family, with its ligurian origin, bringing the name of Castel Genovese, but in the year 1448, after a long attack, it was conquered by the spanish who changed the name only in the year 1520 in Castel Aragonese. In year 1767 name changed again in the final Castelsardo. All this cultures in the centuries created a very mixed and amazing local culture that gives to Castelsardo a particular charme.

2° day: Castelsardo – Alghero 65 n.m.

Today is the longest sailing so we suggest to loose moorings early. The most experienced crews can head for the beach of La Pelosa, wich is 23 n.m. away, less than 4 hours. The shelter of this beach offers a spectacular landscape: white sand, crystal green-blue waters, together with l’isola Piana and its ancient tower, are the reasons why this spot is one of the most photegraphed to advise Sardinia abroad.
Leaving from here you can sail across the Passo dei Fornelli (Fornelli sound); it is very exacting, can be done only in day light and good weather from a very experienced skipper; anyway we strongly reccomend to look carefully at the sea charts and harbour book. Following this way Alghero is 37 n.m. away, a bit more than 6 hours.
If you don’t sail through the Fornelli sound, your route will be different since Castelsardo, heading directly for Punta dello Scorno, north of Asinara island, and then straight to Alghero; in this case you will sail for 65 n.m. in about 11 hours. We advise you to call the harbour offices by telephone at 339-7329921, or by VHF channel 9, in order to announce your arrival and to ask for the berth availability. The ligurian family Doria, the same of Castelsardo, arrived in Alghero in year 1102, and decided to build their high walls on the southern cape of the port. The ancient latin name of “Aleguerium” is in the family documents, probably because the area is reach with seagrass (“alghe” in italian). Alghero became a very strategic and important port, and this is the reason why many war attacks were driven against it by the “Pisani” and the “Catalano-Aragonesi”; they won the sea battle in year 1353 outside Porto Conte and conquered the city. The next year Pietro IV d’Aragona, named “il Cerimonioso” , took Alghero with the Aragona Crown and pushed away sardinian and ligurian people,  bringing the Catalani and Aragonesi (spanish people). Then after 4 centuries, in 1720, the Savoia family took Alghero together with all Sardinia.
 
The past made Alghero very beautiful and full of cultural contrasts: architecture is both ligurian and spanish; the local language is more similar to ancient spanish, and no far away from the city you can visit the Palmavera nuraghe, from year 1000 b.c. The most recent history, at the beginning of th 20th century, have seen the arrival of many coral fishermen from Campania (Naples, southern Italy), where coral begun to be poor in quantity. Since then, between March and October many coral boats arrive in the port, and jewerly can be seen in many shops in town.

3° day: Alghero – Punta Poglina – Bosa 21 n.m.

The westerly sardinian coast doesn’t offer many shelters, being opened to dominant wind here: the north westerly mistral. For that reason it is particularly reccommended to hear at the weather forecasts before sailing, between the island of Asinara and the island of San Pietro, in the south. Out of Alghero you will sail south to anchor after 5 n.m. near Punta Poglina.
Then you will keep sailing south, heading for Bosa, wich is 16 n.m. away. We advise you to call the harbour offices by telephone at 0785-375550, or by VHF channel 14, in order to announce your arrival and to ask for the berth availability. Bosa was founded by the Phoenicians around the IX century b.c.; from then it developed on the Temo River shores, the only river possible to sail in Sardinia.
In year 1112 Bosa was assigned to the ligurian family of Malaspina, wich begun the construction of the castle on the Serravalle hill; then followed a prosperity period for the city, wich developed mainly on the river shores. The Malaspina Castle dominate still today the landscape here, together with the tiny streets and the river, making Bosa absolutely unique in Sardinia.