October 2010
Monthly Archive
Sunday, 10th October 2010
Judith 10 Oct 2010 | : Boring stuff
More stunningly crap weather. Cloudbase was about 30′ AOR (above our roof) [18.33pm correction: orographic cloud has just formed on the cliff, so cloudbase is below the house!] for most of the day and it’s been non-stop rain. The river below the house is a swollen brown mass of water, full of debris carried down from the Pyrenees.
In order to look at a more reliable long term forecast, Geoff had a nose around the internet and managed to find a RASP for the Pyrenees. Not sure about reliable though… it’s out of date already! We’ve also dug out a whole number of wind sites. It all seemed a good idea at the time, but now I’m not so sure. The obsessive weather watching is a summer XC flying activity. I actually quite enjoyed our take-it-as-it-comes attitude to flying over winter and I think I might be able to use my time in other ways. Ok, off to delete them all from my favourites again…
So more work today. Made a great start on the next LMSC newsletter and can see the end of the tunnel with the proper RHADS webcast. I’d rather be flying though…
Saturday, 9th October 2010
Judith 10 Oct 2010 | : Miscellaneous activities, Work
The forecast was atrocious (both in terms of weather and accuracy), but very educational. They predicted cloud, rain, then storms, with possible tornados and the odd ‘mànega’, which I have now learned is a funnel cloud. Later still there would be rain with ‘fang’, which literally means mud. We were a bit stumped by what this could mean, until I asked my multilingual mum who explained that it was Sahara dust that was being sucked up and blown over, which the Catalans term ‘it’s raining mud’. In the event it didn’t rain a drop during the day and there were patches of blue sky throughout the daylight hours. Marc would have gone flying if others had been out, but we expected it to get worse at any time, so didn’t even bother considering flying/walking/cycling. Bloody forecasters!
So we worked some more on the conferences, LMSC stuff and prep for the next webcast. We had lovely dinner at Marc and Isabel’s and met their new son Sergi, who is gorgeous.
The drink driving laws have been tightened up here and since there are millions of different police forces you have to be careful. Geoff had never been breathalysed in 40 years of driving until he was twice here last winter. As we were driving home last night I commented that I had only seen road blocks when it was dry and you didn’t see many Mossos (the Catalan police force) standing around in the rain at night. Two minutes later… we hit a road block. Luckily, the person waving people through was a paragliding friend of ours who cheered us on with a hearty “Adéu, Geoff!”. So much for my daft theories.
At night the spectacular thunderstorms arrived. Some of the thunder claps actually shook the house and I worried that the washing might be blown away on the terrace.
Friday, 8th October 2010
The forecast was rubbish. Geoff had more meetings this morning and I went back to bed. A niggling headache that I have been having for a couple of days really developed last night and had me scuttling to bed at 8.30pm. Not having slept well, I needed the extra few hours to try to recover. The weather was a lot better than expected. No rain and the odd bit of sunshine, but probably too windy and too easterly to fly. So a day of work and reading.
Thursday, 7th October 2010
With the forecast deteriorating, we thought we’d better try and get something out of the day. We had several hours worth of meetings in the morning, but it was still sunny by the time we finished, so we rushed out. It was due to cloud over in the afternoon and the wind was supposed to be east, so we thought we’d try Santa Brigida. While the sun was out it would certainly be thermic enough to bring the wind on. First though, we had to see how the new car would cope with the track up. What a difference 4 x 4 makes. We got up no problem, but probably won’t be ferrying people up and down like we used to.
When we got to the top conditions were fine, the wind was light and on, so I launched to find it very turbulent. East is never that good at Santa Brigida, and the wind can curl over the ridge to the left and make it bumpy. I had a first attempt at top landing, and plummeted like a stone, so much so, that I didn’t have the time to get my feet out of the harness nice and high. Once on final I couldn’t get my foot out of the pod, so couldn’t get myself upright and scraped the edge with my bum before instigating a swoop to overshoot. It was a close shave…
As I was flying, Marc arrived and it was lovely to see him. We spent a happy hour catching up and then realised that the wind had turned east completely. Marc flew but went down and we waited it out for another hour and suddenly the wind came on again. Geoff flew first and got up easily, and reported smooth conditions. As soon as I launched, he came on the radio again to say that it had just got rough again. I flew for about 5 minutes and the thermals seemed to want to grab the tips all the time, but when you flew towards the tug there was nothing there. It wasn’t pleasant, so I just landed again. Not great flying, but at least we got back in the air.
We had fun and games trying to pack Marc’s Peak II. It has rods in the trailing edge and leading edge, and it’s a bit like doing a puzzle. Four hands, three straps and a lot of ‘constructive’ advice from Geoff later, we had the damn thing in the bag.
Wednesday, 6th October 2010
Judith 06 Oct 2010 | : Beach, Trying, but failing, to fly
So today we were going for our first flight back in Spain. The forecast, well Meteocat, said it would be fine, but Oriol didn’t think it would be much of a day and decided to go kite surfing. Bellmunt would have been the best bet, but we had no mates to share rides with, so we came up with an alternative plan, which was go to Santa Brigida and if it wasn’t any good, carry on to the coast.
When we arrived at Santa Brigida, the wind was way off and it was far too windy to fly. The two places on the coast we had identified as possible where Tossa de Mar or Calella de Parafugel and the former was closer, so if it did become flyable, we could drive back and have an evening flight.
As we got closer to the coast, it go hotter and one thermometer in a pharmacy showed 30C. On the beach it was packed, mostly with German teenagers on school trips. We made the cardinal error of putting our towels near a group of rather attractive young girls. As the afternoon progressed we were crowded out by randy young males who did their best to impress the chicks. Geoff was lucky – he didn’t understand a word, so could read, while I was driven to distraction by their inane drivel.
We both went snorkeling a few times and although I usually think that sandy beaches are not great for seeing fish, there are enough rocks around for plenty of shoals. The tourist boats that come right onto the shore sometimes make the water a bit murky with their emissions, but otherwise it was really good for seeing fish. Once the kids stared kicking each other with sand to attract each other’s attention we had enough and packed up and went for a walk up into the old town. Tossa is the only still intact walled town on the Catalan coast and it’s really lovely. It’s not trashed and although we don’t go often we always like it when we do. We even discovered a Roman villa, which is well preserved (by Roman ruin standards!).
Tuesday, 5th October 2010
For three days in a row now Meteocat has completely (and I mean completely) changed at the 11.30am forecast. Luckily these days there is still enough daylight to change the plan for the day. And so it was today…
We had our heart set on going flying today and snorkeling tomorrow. However, once we set off to Santa Brigida, we noticed the strengthening winds and phoned Marc for a second opinion. He concurred that it was marginal and it was probably better to fly tomorrow, so we swung the car round, dumped the gliders and sped to the coast. We went to our favourite little bay which is out of the wind and therefore the sea is calm enough to see lots of fish without getting a gobful of salt water every time you inhale. We pumped up the kayak and Geoff went first. He was a bit lazy, so only carried it to the edge of the water, sat it in and promptly got stuck. The swell pinned him to the spot and he couldn’t get the paddles in enough to propel himself off. I took pity on him once other people’s giggles got too loud and gave him a push off.
I went for a snorkel until Geoff came back from the paddle and I scrambled onto the spray deck and he took me out to sea and then we let ourselves drift back into the bay on the waves. By this time the wind had picked up a bit, so I went for a snooze and then I had a go on the kayak, we swam some more, sunbathed…
By 5pm the sun was getting low over the back of the hill, so we packed up and went for a beer at the car, when I spotted the biggest praying mantis I have ever seen. Her body was the size of my small finger and bottom to antennae, she was the length of the tip of my thumb to the beginning of my wrist. She’s obviously had one too many blokes as snacks.
Monday, 4th October 2010
Judith 04 Oct 2010 | : Miscellaneous activities
It poured in the night, but come this morning the sky was blue. [Note to self: believe the synoptic – not Meteocat.] I did wonder yesterday, since the front was supposed to have cleared us by lunch time. No matter, it was howling. We had arranged to go for lunch with my parents and it was lovely to see them and catch up on news. By the time we got back it was probably flyable, but we have work to do and the forecast for the next few days looks really good, so we’re working forward to be able to take the time off. Flying tomorrow I hope.