We take off the south for the first time, the tow out is over a massive forest so you take care. The task is shorten from 255k to a very convoluted 155k with 4 turn points. Shame as the sky looks good and the original task would have meant 20km lake crossing,, twice, which i was looking forward to...
After a very difficult conditions at the start sector (again...) we make a rather late start at 14:30, and a whole gang leaves with us. We have a good run to the first turn point (TP) but then as we opt to an up wind cloud to stay high, the gaggle overtakes us, gets low at the TP but then find a good climb. We in the meantime don't get a climb and are left behind. UHHH!!!!!
The sky now look quite good and i tentatively suggest a restart, but Liz (luckily) says, don't be daft, and then finds a cracking climbs that puts us back in the game.
After the 2nd TP we have a relatively longer leg and we catch the gaggle up and we go together into the northern 3rd TP. But now we are all rather low, the next TP is to the north-east, but the only clouds near us are to the north. On track we see forest and more forest and then fields with good clouds over them about 10km away, but we are only at 2000 feet.
We cautiously glide towards the good clouds, eyeing the fields in the distance, they look reasonable. A part of me is thinking, this is a landout day, this is a day i lose the competition. The gaggle have gone north away left of track but to the safety of the clouds. Tense moment.
The air is starting to bubble, one turn, nothing much, keep going, more bubbles, another turn, good but not quite, then suddenly a massive rush of air and we are riding a stairway to heaven, climbing at 700 feet per minute onto a day win...
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