A 130 km triangle was set today. Light winds were expected and lift was not expected to be very strong, so the 130 km seemed like a good enough task. Indeed it started that way. I had nothing but sink on tow and it was my first tow in Forbes where I didn't release before I was being waved off. Actually, I wasn't even waived off today, the tug pilot just raised both arms, signalling that he was sorry, but that I had to get off the tow. I was in sink indeed and it took me a while before I found a thermal. I managed to get to the start circle just in time (way back in the standings now, long wait before I'm towed up).
I had my doubts whether the 1st start gate was too early to go, but hey, they didn't predict very strong lift today, so despite the pretty weak lift I had until then, I decided to go for it. It looked like the 130 km was going to be quite a task in those conditions, so I didn't want to waste too much time. What a mistake!
We flew a bit off course, looking for lift and had low and slow progress for the first 30 minutes. After that, the day turned on. It was one 3 m/s thermal (or more) after the other. Racing those with Gerd and Conrad was good fun, but I realized that the later start gates wouldn't have had the slow conditions we had in the beginning. Indeed, at the second turnpoint, we were caught by the 2nd gaggle. They already had us in sight for quite a while.
From there on, it was a fast race back to Forbes with loads of gliders in the sky. Close thermaling it was, luckily the nicely organized thermals allowed it. We won't have won the day, nowhere near, but it was a great recovery after yesterday's disaster. And I do hope the lead points will make up for some of the lost time. Bring on tomorrow!
Not to be forgotten: a big thank you to all the volunteers working to make this happen. Look at the activity and everybody's focus. They really do everything they can to get us in the air as efficiently as possible:
Oh, yes, they do))) very funny picture
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