Nick's Day 11.

Nick, ST - Day 11, 16 Aug

A late starting day with slowly rising cloudbase is the prediction. 2-3 knots to 5500' in the blue is what I find after release.

I sample lift in a few gaggles, but find nothing much, and gliders are milling around waiting for the gate to open. I eventually climb to 6500' and decide not to delay and start alone. It's 2:45PM, with a 3:45 hour task. I catch up to some earlier starters but I lose them in the haze, and then 5 gliders come from behind. The first two legs are in the blue, but with the promise of clouds on the fourth and fifth leg that I can see far in the haze, I cut the second area short. F1 relays a message form the team captain, that there'll be CUs along highway I35. We get to the CUs near the third area. The gliders are continuing further into the area, but I decide to turn north and extend into the last area where cloudbase should be higher, and lift stronger in the hills. The wind doesn't line up with the track, so it's a zigzag to follow short stretches of cloudstreets and I end up detouring inside the track. Halfway up the leg, I see four gliders converging on the same Cu I'm headed for, and they're a little higher. We continue north, but there are fewer and fewer clouds. At the centre of the area, we get a bit of a climb and it's decision time. Keep going in the blue and hope to find some lift or head for home, and probably come in early?  I decide not to take a chance and conserve the speed I've achieved and head for home. I need to find an extra 3000' or so along the way. A couple of climbs with a group of gliders and it's a straight-forward final glide, and 2 minutes over minimum time. 462 km at 122 km/H.