A marine-park dive point off Isola dei Cavoli, visited for one thing: a 3.2 m statue of the Madonna del Naufrago, carved in pink Ozieri trachyte, standing on the bottom at about eleven metres. The park's own itinerary is blunt about the rest of it, rating the fish life and marine flora here as of low-to-medium interest.
Also known as Madonna del Naufrago.
Where it is and how deep
39.0866° N, 9.5471° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
Everything on this dive turns on the statue. The Madonna del Naufrago stands on the bottom at about eleven metres, 3.2 m of pink Ozieri trachyte cut by the Sardinian sculptor Pinuccio Sciola and lowered here in 1979 by the Sub Sinnai diving club. That is shallow enough to spend the whole dive with the figure rather than making a bounce down to it, and shallow enough that the light still reaches: the marine park credits the statue with making the surrounding underwater landscape worth looking at.
Set the rest of your expectations from the same page. The park grades the fish life and the marine flora at this point as of low-to-medium interest, so this is a dive made for the object and its setting rather than for what swims past it. The park also lists no certification requirement for the itinerary, which puts the statue within reach of any certified diver on the boat, whatever they hold. It publishes no depth of its own for the point, no profile and no route.
Background
The figure was carved in pink trachyte from Ozieri by the Sardinian sculptor Pinuccio Sciola and set on the seabed in 1979 by the Sub Sinnai diving club. It stands 3.2 m tall at about eleven metres of depth off Isola dei Cavoli, and its name — Madonna del Naufrago, the Madonna of the shipwrecked — is the point of it. The village priest still dives to the foot of the statue, escorted by a team of divers.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Capo Carbonara: May–Oct is the settled season with the warmest water; the mistral and easterlies close the exposed seccas in winter.
Dive videos
VILLASIMIUS La Madonna del Naufrago · @carlofancello on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Madonna del Naufrago statue?+
It stands on the bottom at about eleven metres off Isola dei Cavoli, which makes this a shallow dive. The marine park itself publishes no maximum depth for the point.
What certification do you need for this dive?+
The marine park lists the required certification for this itinerary as ininfluente — irrelevant — so any certified diver on the boat can do it.
Sources
- Madonna del Naufrago – Immersioni in AMP — Area Marina Protetta Capo Carbonara
- Immersioni in AMP – itinerari consigliati — Area Marina Protetta Capo Carbonara
- Isola dei Cavoli — Wikipedia (Italian)
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