an extremely tough one

Yesterdays day was the hardest one so far. It started up low - I was at the cloud base at 700 m after release. The bases went up to 1100 m in the vicinity of the field and some showers started to develop here and there. The very strong winds (35 kph) were messing up the thermals all the way up. Although I wasn't really high I figured it was the time to go. 3 hours run and there were more and more showers. I was doing well until the last area. The way back home turned out to be longer than expected and I was trying to stay as high as possible dodging the showers that covered the whole area. I actually already had my final glide with a nice safety margin some 50 km out when I managed to use a developing Cb and climbed up to almost 2000m. Big showers on the way washed me back down and I called that I'll be landing out 15km short ... I tried to get up over and over again moving 1 or 2 km at the time and getting blown away by the wind. During my 5th try, where the vario showed +3 m/s on one half of the circle and - 3 m/s on the other one I managed to climb high enough to complete the task and reach the field. I have never been that tired during this comp before. I came back right on time. A huge thunderstorm wall effectively cut the way back for the remaining gliders and we had very many outlandings. This was a 1000 points day and gave me the chance to climb up to position 5 in the total score.

Asia was just lacking luck yesterday. After the launch of my class they stopped launching for another hour or so. She was in the last row of her class and the showers were already over the field when she was up. She tried to go on the task and move to the better air up north but it just wasn't possible. She landed out. Everyone was sad and pissed at the same time. She was leading from the day one and such a silly thing can mess it all up. She was not the only one though. Swaantje, who is flying in my class and was 2nd after 3 days also dropped all the way down in a very similar situation yesterday.

Today is another day but the weather looks veeeery complicated. We are on the grid, waiting for the morning briefing and the decisions. If we're gonna go flying it will be tough again.

They cancelled the Baba Yaga night yesteray due to that many outlandings and extremely strong winds. It's supposed to be tonight instead.

Ziggy is full of s.... We all know that. We got to the tie downs this morning to get everything ready and he goes: "O kurwa!", which means "Oh shit!" in a very bad way. What the hell has happened now I thought. And then he added: "I forgot to bring the beer!". I have to say that he brings 2 beers every morning and puts them in a bucket full of washing water. This is the beer for later and we drink it after I land. Does it mean I won't be landing back here today? Hopefully not ...