Flight

Took off early and failed to leave with the first wave; landed, relaunched and eventually stayed with a rapidly drifting thermal to about 2500 feet over the A23 to the south of Pyecombe. Though the sky looked full of grey monsters and the lift was occasionally strong, it was also broken and turbulent. A lot of persistent turning  got me to Lewes needing a lowish save, which kindly manifested itself. I had seen only two other gliders on the way, one in hot pursuit of my climbs and the other to the south towards Brighton, seemingly pushing into wind. Now I was on my own heading for the upwind edge of a large cloud over Caburn, but still I could not reach cloudbase. Another reasonable climb over the Glyndebourne wind generator, then massive sink towards Ringmer, so back to the climb and a different line towards the gliding field. Still lots of sink, so yielded to ground suck and landed by the Laughton Road. Having prepared a very smart sign to aid with hitching back, I was looking forward to a leisurely pack up, sandwich, and a test of said sign, when Nick (Blue Mojo) BT man rolled up and offered me a lift back to the Dyke. The quickest retrieve ever! Thanks Nick.