Seven Summits Sailing

A Sardinian Road Trip

After discovering the Balearic Islands, the crew of Aitayama is continuing its round-the-world voyage in Sardinia, and more specifically to the island of San Pietro, where Laura, Enrique, Aizea and their dog Bandit will be settling in for a month.

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Published 11/04/2025

By Julie Echelle

Issue: 201

Published: june / july 2025

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Who: Laura, Enrique, Aizea (4 years old) and Bandit (4 paws)
Where: Sardinia
Multihull: Bali 4.2
Instagram: @seven_summits_sailing

There are around 190 nautical miles between the eastern tip of Menorca and the nearest coast of Sardinia. At an average speed of 6 knots, it took us 32 hours to cross, and we saw the sun set twice without making landfall. Bandit has a black nose and a hard head! He didn’t want to pee on board despite the demonstrations that Enrique and I made on the sugarscoop. It’s not easy to forget 9 years of good behavior! In the moonlight we reached the island of San Pietro, in the south-west of Sardinia. Around half past midnight we entered the port of Carloforte in a gentle breeze.

That evening, we learnt a beautiful life lesson that Paulo Coelho summed up so well: “Just when I had managed to find all the answers, all the questions changed.” I found myself, ropes in hand, ready to throw them with all my might over the cleat on the dock as I had learned. It could have been a tricky moment. I would have had to jump from the stern of the boat onto the pontoon, at night, to pass the line through a ring and climb back on board. Luckily, Hervé, captain of a boat called Cathelios, was there and couldn’t sleep: in no time at all, he found himself with my pile of ropes in his hands and helped us moor up. I stammered out a “grazzie,” but then found out the following day that he’s Swiss too! What happened next? We celebrated our arrival in Italy with a Gin and Tonic at one in the morning as we reviewed the last 32 hours of sailing! I don’t know if experience diminishes this feeling (you tell us) but every time we arrive at our destination, we feel an indescribable euphoria!

Carloforte is a town of a thousand colors and cobbled streets, where the locals meet every day in the main square to chat. It’s served by a ferry, has a market that punctuates daily life and boasts magnificent salt pans full of pink flamingos. We’ll be spending 30 days there. I want Aizea to understand that we’re not on vacation, but that we’re living around the world: it’s a detail, but one that makes all the difference. I want her to get to know other people, learn new languages and integrate different cultures. So we enrolled her in school for 3 weeks, and every morning we jumped on our Brompton folding bike, and rode through Carloforte singing Felicità before dropping her off at school.

We took a trip to the south of Sardinia, this time by car. It’s wild, unspoiled, and there’s much more to discover than the sublime beaches. We strolled around the colorful village of Iglesias and spent the night in Oristano. The next day we set off to hike on the high basalt plateau, Giara di Gesturi. We walked through a thick forest of old cork oaks and came across a herd of wild horses. We then visited Su Nuraxi, a nuraghe (prehistoric construction) dating from the Bronze Age and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We ended our road trip in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, famous for its medieval quarter and surrounded by hilltop ramparts. The captain, inspired by our trip, has spent many long hours painting some superb watercolors, which together form a unique travel diary.

After hesitating about sailing to Tunisia, we finally decided to stick to our planned itinerary and set off for Sicily!