10 May 2026 - Ancona

Chris went to meet Paulo and Francesca (friends of his and Giorgia's) at the station, while the rest of the team headed to the shops for provisions for the day.  There was a huge supermarket and a fish shop selling both fresh fish and preprepared fish dishes.  We opted for a couple of the latter to ensure that we would be ok for a couple of days, no matter what.

Paulo and Francesca live in Pesaro, about an hour north of Ancona, so had driven to Ancona and taken the train south from there.

It felt a bit strange having five people on the boat, we spend so much time with just two of us, or occasionally a third, that everything feels a bit "busy" when there are more, albeit very enjoyable to have guests.

During the day, we experienced a full range of weather conditions, from a nice breeze, to a following nice breeze, with the spinnaker up, to no wind and then rain and no wind.  We told them that if you sail with Brits, you get British weather.  Hopefully none of us got too wet. 



As usual, there had been contact with the marina in Ancona in the days before we came. The main part of the marina is vast (1320 berths) but too shallow for us. So we were routed a second basis where the water is deeper.  We are among the super yachts, both motor and sailing.  I am particularly taken with on near us, which is 27.7 m (90 feet), but I bet that they have even more difficulty in finding berths deep enough. 

There have been plenty of times over the last week or two when the possibility of getting to Ancona and sailing with Paulo and Francesca seemed very unlikely.  However, in the end, all of the pieces fitted together and we were able to do it. A triumph.

Miles today              36

Miles this season   473

Steve (and Tricia, Chris, Paulo & Francesca)

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