The star gazing last night was excellent. We had an audio-visual thing in the planetarium before they decided to show us the actual sky and slid back the roof. We then went to an observatory and looked through the most powerful telescope in Catalunya and saw the surface of the moon and a star cluster. Shame the moon was nearly full, so there was a lot of light pollution.

Today’s forecast was for a blue day with more westerly wind and Nicky wasn’t optimistic before we went up. Once there, the wind actually seemed less strong. They set a task down the ridge, back and then over the back to a goal beyond Tremp, next to a lake. We’ve been promised this goal, so we know to pack bikinis in our harnesses. Our wind dummies, John and Jamie, were dispatched and reported excellent conditions, so we all got off quick. As we were heading along the ridge good cumulus started to form and conditions got very good indeed. I would be ecstatic if every blue day was this good!

I bagged the second turn point gliding back from the start in lift the whole way, and then turned back along course to take the thermal over the back. From there it was easy – there was a cloud street all the way to the third turn point and I was still high enough for a comfortable glide across the valley to the spurs before the lake where I could top up. Not having a fancy GPS that tells me I am going to make it, I decided to play it safe and topped up in a thermal 5km out from goal. I thought I could probably make it, but decided I would never forgive myself if I landed short, so thermalled while Bella and Jess flew past me straight into goal. I got there with loads and loads of height!

I’ve decided that consistency is the most important thing, rather than racing (I’ll do that when I get to goal as a matter of course), so getting to goal is more important than how fast I get there. However, I could maybe reduce my time by not taking photos before I get to the ‘end of speed section’. Ooops. Still, I was no slouch. My average speed around the course was 40km/h and I did it in 1 hour 1 minute.

Lots of happy faces in goal, especially when our whole team got there. We swam in the lake and then had beers in the beach bar. It’s been such a lovely comp so far. Everyone is just so nice and the camaraderie is better than in any comp I have experienced before. You get to chat to so many women from different countries and they’re all just really nice. I want to come again next year!

See photos of today.

For results and a map of the task, see here.

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