The mistake people make is treating France to Sardinia as one big jump. It is not, and you would be daft to attempt it that way when Corsica sits right in the gap, splitting an awkward 200-plus nautical mile crossing into a string of comfortable day hops. We took our 11 metre sloop down this way over a fortnight in late May, leaving the Cote d'Azur with full tanks and a vague plan, and arrived in the Maddalena archipelago having sailed almost the whole route in daylight.
This is how the chain actually works, with the numbers we logged.
Why Corsica changes the maths
From Nice to the north tip of Sardinia is roughly 190 nautical miles in a straight line, an overnight passage of 30 to 40 hours for a typical cruising boat. Do it via Corsica instead and the longest single leg drops to the crossing from the mainland to Calvi or Saint-Florent, around 90 nautical miles, which a boat averaging 6 knots covers in about 15 hours. Everything after that is short.
The classic mainland departure points are Nice, Saint-Tropez and the Hyeres area. We left from Saint-Tropez, which puts the rhumb line to Calvi at about 100 nautical miles. If you want the gentlest possible introduction, read up on sailing to Corsica from the mainland first, because the open stretch of the Ligurian Sea between the Var coast and Cap Corse can turn nasty when the mistral funnels down, and timing that gap is the whole game.
Leg by leg down Corsica
Once you are on the island the cruising is the reward, not the chore. We worked down the west coast in unhurried daysails:
- Calvi to Galeria and the edge of the Scandola reserve, about 20 nautical miles.
- Galeria to Ajaccio, around 45 nautical miles, our one longish island day.
- Ajaccio to Propriano, roughly 30 nautical miles.
- Propriano to Bonifacio, about 28 nautical miles, ending under the famous chalk cliffs.
We could have stayed a month. The west coast anchorages are deep and clear, water in the harbours is reliable, and provisioning is straightforward in the bigger ports. If you are weighing whether to circle the whole island before pushing on, the Corsica circumnavigation in two weeks route is the obvious add-on, and plenty of crews do exactly that before crossing to Sardinia.
The Bonifacio Strait: the bit that demands respect
The Strait of Bonifacio (Bouches de Bonifacio) between southern Corsica and Sardinia is only about 7 nautical miles wide at the narrowest, and it concentrates wind and current like a funnel. The strait is a recognised hazard, and large vessels carrying dangerous cargo are barred from transiting it under a long-standing IMO recommendation, which tells you how seriously the authorities take the place.
We crossed early, before the afternoon sea breeze built, with a forecast under 15 knots. The wind here is predominantly west or east, and when it blows it can gust well above the open-water figure because of the venturi effect through the gap. Get a settled morning and it is a 90 minute hop; get it wrong and you are punching short, steep seas with the Lavezzi rocks downwind of you. There is detailed pilotage in the dedicated Bouches de Bonifacio strait guide that I would not cross without.
A waypoint note from our log: we left Bonifacio harbour, cleared the cliffs, and laid a course south-east to pass east of the Lavezzi islands, which keeps you clear of the worst of the rocks and lines you up for the Maddalena. The Lavezzi are a marine reserve and worth a stop in calm weather, with mooring buoys to protect the seabed; see the Lavezzi islands mooring notes for the rules.
Arriving in the Maddalena
Landfall in Sardinia for most France-via-Corsica crews is the La Maddalena archipelago, a cluster of granite islands off the north-east tip that feels like a continuation of southern Corsica. From Bonifacio to the main town of La Maddalena is around 15 nautical miles. The archipelago is a national park with anchoring zones, daily entry fees and seasonal restrictions, so download the park's current rules before you arrive rather than learning them from an angry ranger. The Corsica to Sardinia and the Maddalena piece covers the entry permit, the buoy fields and where you can and cannot drop the hook.
This is also where you change countries, so a word on admin. You are leaving France and entering Italy, both EU and both Schengen, so for an EU-flagged boat with EU crew it is a non-event. If your boat is non-EU flagged or your crew includes non-EU passport holders, the Schengen 90/180 day rule for boaters clock keeps running across the border, and you should keep your clearance paperwork tidy because Italian authorities do board.
Fuel, water and the practical numbers
Plan fuel for windless days, because the Tyrrhenian in early summer can go glassy for 48 hours at a stretch and you will motor more than you expect. We carried enough diesel for about 50 hours of motoring and used roughly half of it across the whole France to Sardinia run. Fuel berths exist in Calvi, Ajaccio, Propriano and Bonifacio on the Corsican side; the Corsica provisioning, water and harbours rundown lists where the reliable bunkers are, which matters because the smaller harbours can run dry of diesel at weekends in peak season.
Costs to budget for, 2025-2026:
- Bonifacio in high season is one of the dearest harbours in the Med; a berth for a 12 metre boat in August can run well over 100 euros a night, sometimes far more.
- La Maddalena national park charges a daily navigation and anchoring fee that varies by zone and boat length, typically in the tens of euros per day.
- Diesel on Corsica tracks French pump prices, generally a little above mainland marina rates.
Weather and the windows that matter
The Tyrrhenian and the seas around Corsica run on a few dominant patterns, and understanding them turns the whole voyage from anxious to relaxed. The mistral, born over the Rhone valley, sweeps south-east across the Ligurian Sea and can pile into the channel between the mainland and Cap Corse with little warning, which is why the mainland-to-Corsica leg is the one to time most carefully. Once you are on the island's lee, the west coast often gives you flat mornings and a building afternoon sea breeze, the same thermal rhythm that makes day-sailing the Ligurian hop into Italy such a civilised affair just up the coast.
The libeccio, the south-westerly, is the other one to watch. It builds swell against Corsica's exposed west-facing anchorages, so I always had a bolthole in mind before committing to an open bay overnight. The dedicated Corsica weather for visitors notes go into the local signs, and they are worth committing to memory because mobile data thins out fast once you are among the granite. We carried a proper offline forecast and treated any morning with the mistral signature, a hard, dry northerly building over the Gulf of Lion, as a stay-put day. Twice that call kept us tucked in Calvi while boats that pushed on had a miserable beat.
When to go
Late May and June are the sweet spot. The mistral risk is dropping, the water is warming, and the August crowds and prices have not yet arrived. We saw daytime temperatures in the low to mid twenties and night-time lows around 14 degrees in late May, ideal for a crew that still wants to sleep under a blanket. September is the other good window, with warm water and thinning crowds, though the autumn can bring the first big lows of the season.
By the time you tie up in the Maddalena you will have crossed two stretches of open water, threaded one of the Med's trickiest straits, and barely sailed at night. That is the whole argument for going via Corsica. If your sights are set further east after Sardinia, the same stepping-stone logic carries you on, and the France as a stepping stone to the Mediterranean overview sets out how the pieces link from the Channel all the way to the Tyrrhenian.
