Wednesday 4 February 2009

Mexico Task 9

Another 106km task through 6 turn points.
Base @ 3800m
Thermals: strong
Convergence: plenty of.

There is a high pressure system sitting over the Gulf of Mexico and this somehow feeds moist air into Valle de Bravo. The result is cloud cover. The northerly wind mixes with the South westerly valley breezes and this is what produces the convergence marked by cloud streets amplified by moisture.

It is astonishing how entirely predictable and consistent the flying conditions are. I have never seen anything like it.

Yesterdays' task of 117km was completed in 2hrs 36 mins. This is spectacularly quick. Much of the day involved pushing as much of the speed bar as you dared at cloud base.

As for today, our mixed fortunes continue to... uhm well... mix! I guess. Nevil and Andre down in a blue hole after half way, so it was was up to Henry to carry the candle for SA. He managed goal along with about 70 others. A few of the leaders went down at the second last turn point, so there may be a bit of a mix up in the top twenty. Today was a day to lurk it seems.

The task took us to the east and back to the launch area before snatching a nasty lee side cliff top tower for a turn point and then a choice of routes over the lake. The leaders chose the easterly route around the lake and got sucked into the blue hole that was the area between convergence zones. Some went tiger line over the lake. There appeared to be a lull in the thermic/convergence activity for about 30 mins before the entire valley went off! The results will tell the story I am sure.

More tomorrow... two days to go.

2 comments:

Desi said...

And here we are, up to our ears in snow.
Love Desi xxx

Anonymous said...

:) sure it was only snow?