The hop from Bonifacio across to the Maddalena archipelago is one of the shortest international passages in the Mediterranean and one of the most misjudged. It looks trivial on the chart: a dozen miles of open water between two famous cruising grounds. What the chart does not show is the current that runs through the strait, the wind that funnels and accelerates between the two islands, and the permit system on the Italian side that catches out skippers who arrive without paperwork. I have made this crossing both ways more than once, and the day you treat it casually is the day it bites.
The distances
The Strait of Bonifacio, the Bouches de Bonifacio in French, is about 11 kilometres wide at its narrowest, which works out at roughly 10 nautical miles of open water. From Bonifacio harbour across to the Maddalena islands is a crossing of around 12 nautical miles, and from the Sardinian port of Santa Teresa Gallura over to Bonifacio it is closer to 10. Either way, this is a morning's sail, two to three hours under most rigs, not an expedition.
The shortness is exactly what makes it dangerous. A short passage tempts you to skip the forecast, leave at the wrong time of day, and treat it as a formality. It is not. The strait packs a lot of weather into a small space.
The current and the wind
The water moves through the strait. The main current runs at an average of around half a metre per second, which is about one knot, but it can reach close to 1.5 metres per second, getting on for three knots, when conditions line up. Layer wind-driven current on top of that, which can add three to four knots in a blow, and you have a tidal-gate problem in a sea that supposedly has no tides. Set yourself against the current with wind over tide and the strait kicks up a short, steep, breaking sea that is genuinely unpleasant in a small boat.
Then there is the libeccio. The south-westerly that dominates this corner of the Mediterranean funnels straight through the gap between Corsica and Sardinia, and the narrowing of the strait accelerates it. The wind regime here is westerly roughly half the time, blowing between 260 and 300 degrees, and when it squeezes through the bottleneck it produces sudden gusts and waves higher than the surrounding water. Add a mistral on top and the strait becomes a place to stay in harbour, not cross.
My rule is the same as for rounding Cap Corse: go early, go in settled weather, and check the actual forecast for the strait rather than the general island outlook. The morning is calmer, the afternoon sea breeze has not yet built, and you arrive with the day in front of you. I have crossed at eight in the morning in a flat calm and watched the same water turn ugly by three. Understanding Corsican weather for visitors is the foundation for getting the timing right, and the strait is where that knowledge pays off most directly.
For the detail of the passage itself, the hazards, the shoals and the islets that litter the strait, I have set it out separately in my guide to the Bouches de Bonifacio strait, and it is worth reading before you commit the keel to that water.
Permits on the Sardinian side
Here is the part that catches visiting cruisers cold. The Maddalena archipelago is a national park, and you cannot simply sail in and anchor. You need a permit, bought before or on entry, and the fees and rules change every season.
For a private leisure boat, a single day in the park costs somewhere between 2 and 5 euros depending on which zone you enter. A seven-day permit ranges widely, from around 34 euros up into the hundreds for the most restricted zones. Fifteen days runs from roughly 58 euros to well over a thousand at the top end. Sailing boats get a 40 per cent discount to reward low-impact navigation, and buying online rather than in person knocks a further 5 per cent off the entry fee. Buy the permit through the park's official platform before you go, keep the receipt accessible, and be ready to show it.
The anchoring rules matter as much as the permit. Anchoring is allowed only in designated zones and only on sand or rock, never on the protected seagrass. Overnight anchoring is heavily restricted across much of the park: in many areas you cannot anchor between roughly 9pm and 8am, and you must instead pick up a park-managed mooring buoy for the night. The buoys cost money on top of the entry permit. None of this is optional, and the park enforces it.
Rules back on the French side
Do not assume the French side is a free-for-all. The Lavezzi islands, the cluster of granite islets a few miles south-east of Bonifacio that sit right in the strait, are a protected nature reserve with their own designated anchoring zones and seasonal limits. Some areas there ban anchoring outright to protect the seagrass. If you are island-hopping through the strait, you may touch both protected areas in a single day, and you need to know the rules for each. The Lavezzi islands moorings are worth understanding in detail before you drop a hook on that side.
How I actually do the crossing
A clear-weather Maddalena run, for me, looks like this. The night before, I check the strait forecast specifically, looking for a settled morning with the libeccio quiet. I buy the park permit online to get the discount and have it saved offline. I leave Bonifacio early, ideally in the first calm of the morning, and I plan the crossing so that any current is with me or at least not dead against a building wind.
Across the strait I keep a careful watch for the islets and shoals that pepper the gap, and I do not cut corners around the rocks even in good visibility, because the afternoon glare flattens the sea and hides them. On the Italian side I make for a designated anchoring zone or a park mooring, get the permit ready to show, and settle in well before the afternoon wind fills.
Coming back the other way, the same logic applies in reverse: cross in the morning calm, mind the current, and be tied up in Bonifacio or anchored in a Corsican bay before the strait wakes up.
One more practical point on clearing in. This is a crossing between France and Italy, so you are changing country even though it feels like a day sail. In normal Schengen conditions there is no customs post to visit on a private yacht moving between two EU states, but you should carry the boat's registration, your insurance documents and crew passports, and be ready to present them if a patrol asks. The park authorities and the Italian coastguard both work this water, and the permit receipt is the document they will want first. Keep it where you can produce it from the cockpit without rummaging below.
The Maddalena is worth the effort. The water is extraordinary, the islands are wild, and the crossing itself is one of those passages that feels like a proper bit of seafaring despite its length. But it earns respect. Get the weather window, get the permit, anchor where you are allowed, and this short hop becomes a highlight rather than a horror story. And if you are weighing up a boat for this kind of cross-border Mediterranean cruising, the hull and rig checks I run before buying are in my piece on buying a used sailboat.
