Day 2 debrief

Like all good gliding contests, the task was set on the day before's weather. We resolved the GPS problems (almost) and still can't get enough water in the glider. I got a good start and caught up the 15m gaggle in the first 30kms. The gaggles are far more fierce than in Australia and I had the worst near miss of my life, a very aggressive German coming within a metre of me. Despite being light, I kept up with the gaggle (the 27 goes very well), but being naiive, decided to leave the gaggle as I was on top. Big mistake. Very soon the conditions were dying and we still had 270kms to go, and the last turnpoint was just over the Danube - by reputation a very dead area. I thought I'd lost pace with the main gaggle and conditions were awful, but was surprised to see them all just come out of the last turnpoint as I was going. Unfortunately the day was so dead, I was about 1 thermal too late and outlanded around 50km from home. Thank heavens for SPOT and a new car GPS. Jeremy and Ziggy had to drive through paddock after paddock to get to me, arriving just on dark - there are no roads to speak of and no-one speaks English to ask directions.

Learning heaps and having lots of fun

Jenny