| Flight details: | BoPeep to Breaky Bottom, one of the finest vineyards in all Britain!
What a fabulous day! Launched in light wind, almost clipping the thick hawthorne by the fence, turned right to the main take off and found myself in good buoyant air with a bunch of others all going up. The best climbs were just out front from the harvested fields and working these I soon managed to climb through the hazardous milieux and had a very quick climb straight to base at about 3300'. Catching up with Grita and Mark R in the wispy bits the sky looked good to the west with a wall of cloud along the coast from Newhaven to Brighton. Not wanting to fall into the trap of drifting too far south to the inescapable bottle neck of Newhaven/Peacehaven and environs I pushed west, crabbing for much of the way with Mark a few hundred metres to the north and Grita just behind. Heading for a handsome looking cloud near Kingston I crossed the River Ouse with ample height but this is always the tricky bit since once over the river it is imperative to find a good climb on the other side as soon as ever possible! The handsome cloud failed to deliver, Mark found a better climb and the little blips on my vario rendered nothing. In retrospect I might have done better in engaging in what little lift there was by turning a touch to the south to hook whatever small thermals they were, perhaps peeling away downwind. Always so much to think of when flying! Break Bottom loomed ahead, that wondrous little vineyard appeared in a secluded fold of the Downs and just before that a large fire and the burning of woodland trees. Surely something to be had, but the smoke trailed away to the south a few hundred feet below and moments later I was down amongst walkers on the South Downs Way barely a hundred yards from the winery! I would have loved a chilled glass of their award winning Sparkling Brut 2010 Seyval Blanc which you can buy for £27 a bottle in Waitrose, but my wonderful retrieve (Jack Rubenstein) was already on h |
