234km and we all made it!

What a day! After talking with Ralph and Barry this morning our stories are quite similar. But first, here are some pics from yesterday.
The launch lines at the airport.

Jeff O'Brien setting up his duct tape speed machine. Jeff is doing really well so far.

Jorge is one of the nicest dudes I have had the pleasure of knowing. He is always smiling just like this.

This is Paul and his son Ty. Paul is a local who is driving retrieve for us. He rocks, he doesn't get lost, beats us to goal and is funny as hell. he makes the long rides back really interesting as he is more than willing to put any of us in our place. Especially Davis!

Waiting for my turn to go play hang glider.

The day was described as "perfect". The cu's started popping at 10:30 and kept getting better. I was the 25th to launch from our line as there is an ordered launch with 15 priority pilots in front of me. Like yesterday I was lucky enough to have Bobby tow me up again and he drop ed me of in a nice thermal that I stayed and climbed in for 15 minutes. I wasn't climbing that well as I was trying to undo a knot in my zipper string so I could zip up. Once I had that sorted I worked my way to the edge of the start circle and tried to get into position. I wasn't able to get to the lead gaggle by the start time so I glided off with the other 25 pilots I was with. Things were going well to the first turn point. Climbs were strong and consistent. At the turn point I had a brief encounter with the crankiest bird I have ever seen. He dove at me once so the second time he took a run at me I turned towards him as quickly as I could and then he didn't bug me again.
The group I was with thinned out more and more so at 100 km out I was by myself with only 134 km to go. I got low at 80 km from goal and had to push the reset button and take whatever I could find to stay in the air at 1000 ft off of the deck. 20 minutes of circling in zero It turned on and I took it back up to 2800 m. By now the climbs had gotten soft, the glides long and the shadows even longer. I was 69 km from goal and gliding conservatively and stopping to climb so I stayed high. It wa slow going. All of the clouds were gone, I was climbing in 50-100 up with up to 3/4 vg to try to squeeze out every inch of lift. At 39 km out my numbers went positive so I tried to top out what I had and I went on glide at full rope with my lips tight and my arms tucked in. At 20 km out I had a 16-1, I wasn't sure if I would make it and I have landed short too many times to risk it so I stopped in a 50 up until I had a 12-1 and did the next 10 km at best L/D until I had a 10-1 and then pulled the bar in and crossed the finish line at 100 ft going 110 km/hr. It felt soooooo sweet to fly so far away from where I started and to land and be greeted by friends.

Davis was the first from our team to make goal. He is doing well in his bet with Gerolf, if he can keep it up he might be going home with the glider that he is flying.

Besides all the Canadians, Davis And Jeff O were in as well so we immediately tore my wing down and loaded it up to go and find Jeff S as he landed 40 km short on the other side of a river. We got to him at 9:30 and made our way back to Forbes by 1 am. We have the day off today and won't be flying as the day got cancelled. More on that tomorrow.