It was south today, so the chances were it would work at all the local southerly sites. We had a phone round to check what others thought and dismissed Berga and Bellmunt and narrowed it down to Sant Pere de Rodes and El Mont. Geoff likes to be beside the seaside… so Sant Pere de Rodes it was. We met Mike, Oriol, Johnny and Enric in Palau Saverdera and then headed up the hill. The clouds only seemed to be marginally above the hill and seemed to be coming from the east, but Oriol convinced us that it would be great by the time we had carried up.

The wind was on, so we got off as soon as we could and conditions were excellent. The clouds were all working and I thought for the first time that it might actually be possible to get to the beach. This has been an ambition of ours for years, but it’s normally a summer thing and in the depths of winter there’s not a chance.

We all got high, but Johnny and Enric chose to land in the official landing field, Oriol flew all over the place but had to get back home early and Geoff flew to a cloud that didn’t work. Mike and I headed off to Roses. I had sussed that the clouds worked when you were high and close to them, but it was difficult to thermal up when you were low. I stayed high until there was another cloud to go for and then I progressed. When I got close to Roses, I wasn’t sure I could actually make it onto the beach and there’s nowhere to land in Roses, other than the monument and I wasn’t sure it wasn’t closed for the siesta and I didn’t want to be locked in for the afternoon. I headed for the final cloud and it worked and I got to the beach with far too much height. A little flying over the sea and snapping photos later I landed to a round of applause from all the people sitting at the bar I landed in front of. I had a tourist to help me get the sand out of my wing and then Mike turned up. He had landed short, but only had a 10 minute walk to meet me. We had a nice beachside beer before Geoff came to pick us up.

Great day and another long held ambition achieved.

See photos of today.

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