PWC Brazil day 1

Well after spending my entire rest day in bed except for an hour to register, I drug my butt out of bed this morning and pressed on with day 1 preparations. I felt better but far from 100%. The weather looked pretty good so we loaded the busses and the 125 of us plus all the support personnel headed up the mountain. I packed away my medications (the result of a 2am taxi ride) and off we went. I reveled in the organization of the world cup, visited with several pilots, and numbered my glider as per the regulations. They called a nice 70k task with several turn points and we all got ready and launched when the launch window opened. Everyone got right up to cloud base and jockeyed for position in the start cyclinder. As soon as the start time passed most of the 125 pilots were in excellent position and everyone went on glide towards the first turn point which was about 7k away. It was quite a site and I was sorry I didn't have my camera with me today. I've asked a few friends to send me a couple of pics which I'll post if I get them.

After several minutes of all of these really good pilots gliding along it became obvious that the day didn't look quite as good as it had earlier. There were plenty of clouds ahead, so there must be some thermals coming up soon. Litterally every single pilot was on the ground shortly there after and my first PWC task was over. It was quite a site seeing gliders all over the place just gliding into a landing without finding even the smallest of thermals - this in the middle of the afternoon when things should really be cooking! When I was gliding quite low I noticed that the buzzards were all grouped up and struggling themselves just to stay in the air without flapping there wings.

I don't think the day will be valid but they won't say for sure until they've had a chance to look at everyone's gps....

I'm back at the posada and all of the US guys have gone out to dinner.... I'm in bed and hoping for a good 12 hours to try and recover more from this narly bug I'm hosting. As the sun was setting this eve it looked as though there were multiple layers of clouds moving into the region, so tomorrow may be quite iffy. Sometimes it's just amazing how bringing a big competition to town can make the weather go haywire. It's been beautifully soarable here for almost a month without any interruptions.....go figure....

Jack