Flight

Dave was flying on arrival, only on the ENE slope but with the wind forecast to veer SE and the hill to ourselves it seemed like a result. It looked smooth and steady but by the time I got airborne it was getting cyclic and I nearly went down more than once so decided to land and wait. Meanwhile Dave did go down and whilst I waited for him I noticed that a convergence line was forming and there was stronger winds on the river toward the sea. A quick check of the Newhaven wind machine confirmed that there was a moderate/strong SSE sea-breeze forming. I'd already told Dave that if I found a decent climb I wouldn't come back to the hill as I thought the sea-breeze would end the day so shortly after his wing reappeared at the back of launch but before he could get over to me the wind picked up and I launched. It felt like the SB was kicking off the thermals and almost immediately I found a climb close to the ridge. I took it all the way up to almost 3000, just as Dave had jokingly predicted the day before the only difference being that he wasn't up there with me!

I could clearly see I was in convergence from up high so I pushed along the lift line back to hill hoping that Dave would get up to join me but although he tried he couldn't find anything and went down for a 2nd time, this time into the very wet field. It was clear that I had to come up with a plan now so I decided to use the 2 approaching SB fronts (E and S) to stay up and help me inland. There was a blue hole between me and Bo-peep where they were up over as high I was so my first plan was quickly dropped. The convergence line toward Brighton was obvious so I set off that way. As I followed it clouds started appearing upwind of me so I started to edge inland. Once again I had the pleasure of climbing up the wall of the SB front but I didn't stay long this time, converting the extra height into distance. The drift was taking me West and behind Firle I pushed to a good forming cloud which gave me my best h