Alicante and Dénia are the mainland end of the Balearic shuttle. Dénia is the shortest crossing to Ibiza and Formentera on the whole coast, and Marina de Dénia sits under the castle with the ferries running past it; Alicante’s Marina Deportiva is the bigger berth, in a city with an airport that half the charter guests in the western Mediterranean pass through.

That makes this coast a staging post rather than a destination, and staging posts are where provisioning actually gets done. A yacht crossing to the islands for a charter is far better stored here, where a pallet can be delivered to a quay with road access, than in Ibiza in the second week of August. Orders travel on EU logistics — no customs frontier — typically two to three working days from confirmation.

Alicante is also a serious sailing city: the Volvo Ocean Race made its home here for years and the racing infrastructure left behind is unusually good. Regatta provisioning is its own thing — volume, timing and a great deal of it non-alcoholic — and we are happy to quote a campaign rather than a charter when that is what you are running.

The wines here are among Spain’s most improved. Alicante’s old-vine Monastrell has gone from bulk to seriously good in a generation, Fondillón is one of Europe’s historic fortified curiosities, and the Moscatel from the hills behind Dénia is excellent. Inland, Jumilla and Yecla make reds that punch far above their price on a crew list.