Summer sailing in the Mediterranean on Explosion

On the 10th of June 2010 I flew from Prestwick to Alicante to join the crew of Explosion on its summer sailing trip from Cadiz to Marseilles via the Balearic islands. Bonno Hylkema is the owner/skipper and I met Bonnno on the yacht delivery I documented at Orust's trip.

The embedded slideshow below is of the photos I took on my trip from Alicante to Ibiza and then Mallorca. The photos of the girls in local costumes were taken at the Fogueres Fiesta in Alicante.

Explosion is a Dynamic 37, built in Denmark and a fast cruiser/racer. Her speciality is closehauled upwind sailing where she excels. The running backstays took getting used to when we tacked but she took us safely through an electric storm on the way to Ibiza and tuna trawlers on the way to Palma. The AIS intergrated with the chart plotter was very useful for the overnight sails to Ibiza and Palma.

The crew comprised Bonno, Folkert, Jaap (to Altea), Robert who were all Dutch and myself - the only Scotsman.
Places we visited after leaving Alicante we sailed past Benidorm and stayed overnight at Altea on the Costa Blanca where we were hosted by Astrid and Folkert for a tapas supper then a tour of the old town and a beer. We left Altea next morning and sailed up the coast to Cabo de la Nao then across to Ibiza where we stayed at the "expensive- €240 per night" Ibiza Marina. We toured the island next day on motobike lunching at Cala d'en Serra. The following morning we headed up the coast to Santa Eularia where we topped up the diesel tanks before heading across to Palma on Mallorca. While in Palma we met Angel Juncosa, who owns a Moody Halberdier like myself, and had an excellent lunch with Angel at the Real Club Nautico de Palma.

I flew home from Palma on the 19th direct to Prestwick.