A pity of charter company, poor maintenance of a great boat
From the moment we booked, the Cagliari Sailing Charter center provided us with little to no service. It was extremely difficult to obtain information on essential topics. Most of the information went unanswered or was provided just a few days before boarding. Several were too late to prepare for the cruise, and others were useless or incorrect.
The reservation, according to Globesailor, with a disembarkation at Portisco was incorrect. Cagliari SC indicated that there had been no base for years in Portisco, stating that "GlobeSailor is mistaken." However, on the Cagliari SC website, Portisco is still listed as their base.
This gives an idea of CSC's disorganization and lack of coordination.
Portisco, still a modest marina, would have been much better than Marina dell'Isola. It has no services and is difficult to access. It's a very difficult stretch of foot for transfers and crew specially at night, even with limited (and not very friendly) assistance from SeaFever.
The dock (not port) is flimsy and also difficult to access the boats.
The boat cleaning was very poor, they had to go over it the morning we left (and even then...).
At docking the night before disembarking, we were left without water or electricity.
They responded that it was the skipper's responsibility...
The boat had electrical and electronic problems.
The pilot had no connection to the plotter/charts, no navigation lights (e.g., no all-round light), and other, some serious problems:
The windlass thermal breaker kept tripping; we were told they would bring a new one, but it never appeared.
The electrical system worked only partially, e.g., the air conditioning sometimes, always without power for the oven or toaster.
The watermaker only worked when motoring, and not always...
A very inexpensive detail to fix would be a decent gangway; the board we had was completely worn out, unstable, and risky to use.
Without a pump for the paddleboards, one was practically deflated.
Several cabins had no working USB ports.
Several hatches had faulty seals, lacking watertightness.
No storage space for bulky supplies or garbage collection.
The skipper and the flight attendant, who promised to speak English and Spanish respectively, were clueless, and communication with GTranslator was very difficult.
The skipper gave us good guidance on the preferred route, but some of his practices proved inconvenient (claiming safety, but exaggerated; precisely because he was having difficulties with the windlass, he would release the chain several times more than necessary (3 times the depth gauge), making the hoisting maneuvers very slow due to the malfunction). Errors in berth reservations also resulted in higher costs and lower quality. Several routes were calculated under a very tight schedule.
Regarding the hostess, I can only say that she was a major problem instead of a help.
She said she was sick (we gave her ibuprofen several times) and having difficulties at home.
We found the demand to pay them in cash and without a receipt suspicious.
Under normal circumstances, a person unable to do their job would ask to be discharged and be replaced or reimbursed.
Constantly on the phone, it was very difficult to understand and assist us. The shopping she handled was insane in terms of quantity and cost (we had to throw away a lot and were still able to collect some smaller items upon disembarkation), and she poorly preserved perishable products. A large amount of exceeding perishable and non-perishable food was left on the ship upon disembarkation...
We gave up checking the very expensive purchases; the copies of the receipts are unintelligible...
There was a huge mess and lack of hygiene in the storerooms/pantry, refrigerator, and freezer.
The cleanliness of the kitchen, lounge, and cockpit areas was a mess, leaving us fearful for our health (e.g., unpackaged fish dripping in the refrigerator).
In short, neither Cagliari SC, nor Marina dell'Isola, nor the condition of the boat, nor the crew, made for a pleasant cruise.