We’re catering for 15 tonight, so I thought I’d better make a start with pastry cases, etc. in the morning. By the time I was ready to go, it was too late to contact the HG pilots to see about sharing lifts up El Mont, so we decided to go to Santa Brigida instead.

There seemed to be wind on the way, but when we got there it was too light to stay up. There was also a lot of cloud around. Geoff gave it a go anyway and promptly went down. He got a lift back up with Enric and Marc. By the time they were back it had picked up a lot and had become quite gusty, but the sky was also breaking up and the sun was starting to poke through. Marc did mention that he thought it would be very unstable and that any sunshine on the ground would trigger a thermal. The temperatures where certainly cold, but you could feel it rise as soon as the sun hit you.

Once we got in the air, it was very thermic indeed. I got a consistent 3m/s to 800′ ATO and then pulled out… too cold for me, despite my six layers. It was possible to get much higher and I watched Marc core a real screamer. He was rocketing up. On the ground, the wind was getting stronger and stronger. Geoff and I both had several goes at top landing, but were unsuccessful. It was too windy to go far behind the trees and anywhere near the edge had you shooting up again, and it was rough near the edge too. After four goes and nearly and hour in the air, my hands were frozen and I decided to bottom land with everyone else. Apart from the cold, the conditions were really spring-like. El Mont would have been a good choice too. The hang gliders had a great hour and a half in strong thermic conditions.

Party in the evening went well, with friends, neighbours and parents coming. And the food was a success too.

See photos of today.

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