Flight

Second day at BOS, we arrived at Nant-y-moel under a blue sky. Kathleen Rigg and Cyril both launched first showing it was barely soarable and weak climbs. A 54km task was set and everyone was very doubtful anyone would get away. The sky looked rubbish- we thought it had seabreezed and the valley behind had no landings meaning we needed to be at least 3000ft and still climbing over the back to get over it safely. I was fourth to launch with Paul Harvey and Gordan Rigg immediately after. Paul and I Climbed to about 3000ft but both bottled out going over the back with it as we were too low. Then Paul and Gordan Climbed out taking the second Start gate and activated the task- I could see them flying away and got a lucky climb a few hundred feet above the hill about 15 minutes later whilst lots were sinking out below the ridge- it kept climbing past 3000ft drifting back over the unlandable valley- perfect! Paul Harvey went off ahead and eventually went down so Gordan slowed down which allowed me to catch up for us to do the next 40k together. It was generally tiptoeing around the high ground with weak thermals under a blue sky, trying to work out the next climb from ground sources.  After we got over the high 'heads of the valleys' road the ground dropped away and we felt safer at 4000ft. I got the first turnpoint with Gordan and with two more climbs over the ridges we were on a 50mph final glide to goal. We arrived within seconds of each other and landed in a nice field where a friendly farmer and his wife came out to greet us and bought a cup of tea for us both. About an hour later and another 7 gliders came steaming into goal. A great day with very lucky thermal getting me out of the start cylinder in a 20minute later start gate from Gordan meaning my first ever task win. Rest of the week looking not so good, with Tuesday as the only hopeful forecast.