Day 8 rain day/ rest day

Woke to gentle rain and a had a relaxed breakfast with most if the team this am. Rob dutifully made the team captain meeting @ 8:30 and emailed us the official news while we ate an interesting bread-like quiche-like creation with ham and cheese inside and sipped fresh coffee with streamed milk thanks to our hostess Ana 

The cats were sleeping on the bench below and the day had a calm and peace about it. 

Last night, before dinner, we tried the local drink called "cloud" by mixing one part Mastika and Mentha together. Lets just say "cloud flying is dangerous". 

Horse drawn carts are a normal sight here, though I suspect even more so, in the more rural areas. We only see them occasionally here in town. 

Thanks to Swiss pilot, Joel Debons for snapping this photo of me landing yesterday ahead of the rain. Cheers! Here is another one I shoulda posted yesterday:

The view facing away from the rain was so nice too:

Brett and Eric walking to the van yesterday.  

This is the launch pad on the chair lift.  It goes pretty quick so you want to stand in the right place and be ready. 

Water fountains are found in several places around town. The water is safe and tastes good too. There is a flowing little steam of water that is channelled through town too. I imagine how fun it would be for my kids to race paper boats in it.  (At least I am tempted to)  The local dogs know how to use it best:

The cobblestone streets are interesting to look at. The pattern must keep the stones from shifting or perhaps it just looks nicer this way?

The Main Street seems to have just paved over the cobble stones. 

Here the stone sidewalk meets the little stream and cobblestone meets pavement. This would be the finish line for any paper boat races too. 

This is my favorite flower that I pass each day I hike (400 vertical feet) up from the chair lift drop off point to our Team USA camp near the top. It would be a challenge to keep my youngest daughters at home from picking it, as they love to find and collect things like Tinker Bell. Ok, me too. 

With the recent rain, workers across the street and even in an adjacent yard next to ours, workers are busy roofing. 

Tiles are made here locally.  While flying, towns are easy to spot because all the rooftops are this color. 

Our humble kitchen has a washer but clothes are hung to dry outside in the yard. 

The small tale is full of snacks and laundry is lined up on the floor. 

Our small fridge is packed with food and adorned with a few magnets. The American flag magnet caught my eye and it changes when viewed at different angles 

911 truly was felt worldwide it seems. 

The local graffiti artists have a sense of humor too. 

And some of the competitors too. 

Cheers,

Marty

 

Day 7 task (task 5) stopped

Today we were to meet at the lift at 9:15 to find out if we are to go up or not. 

Up we went!  I ate early knowing there would be little time to eat up top. Pork sandwich for me today with 2 apricots and a cranberry bar for later. Yum.  Probably the best lunches I've ever had at a meet for carnivorous satisfaction. Meaty! Though we could use some sauce. Maybe I'll pick up some team Mayo?

Nprth wind could shut us down on take off we were told. We knew the day could overdevelop also, so the task was decided early, the meeting called and we were actually waiting for the live trackers to get there as we were doing things faster than normal to get away. 

As I opened my glider I saw a grasshopper in the wing tip and carefully fished him out. It seems that he had gotten in there yesterday before I took off. This means he made goal with me and spent the night  in the wing until today, retuned to his home after a 75 mile tour of his valley. Nice!

The window was opened and immediately closed due to north wind coming over the back (unsafe launch conditions). The start time and 'window open' (launch time) were both pushed later by 10 minutes.

Everyone was laid out and when the window opened again we all dove off the hill in a steady stream and in no time we were all at cloud base wondering what to do for the next 35 minutes or so as the sky grew very dark overhead. 

Lift was everywhere and the clouds were getting huge. 

Some were very high into the wispies but I saw no reason to play chicken with the cloud. 

Soon after, it began to rain a little near launch and shortly after that, Rob announced that the task has been stopped and to fly west to an airstrip used earlier in the week. 

As we flew out the could completely OD'd (overdeveloped) and the rain dumped out. Pilots made a dash to get on the ground before things got worse. 

Fortunately We all got down safely and were packing as the thunder and lightning began. A mild gust front blew through and cooled us as we finished packing in the clear.  Not a drop on us!

I guess we get a rest day. No complaints here. 

I tried this coffee vending machine.  50 "local" cents works out to about a quarter dollar US.  Yummy! Took a walk around town to get some things. 

There is a local spirit called Mastika that is like Ouzo or Anisette, having a licorice flavor. The locals mix this with Metha or Mentha which is a mint liqueur, serve it chilled and call it "Cloud". Been wanting to try this out, but thought I'd go with the trial size first. Served chilled.  Not sure what the proportions are yet. Hmmm. 

Found a bigger market, fun to see what they have. 

There is always something to remind me of home. 

Eclaires??? Mmmmmm. Maybe next time. 

Ice cream cooler on the sidewalk.  Gotta love it. Marketing at its very best. 

Movie tonight at the theater around 6pm. Invited to the British team house for mojitos some time or other and Ana will be seeing us at 7:30 for dinner, you can count on that!

Cheers from Sopot,

Marty

Yikes!

Task 4 All USA Team pilots in goal!

Today looked good early on, but we had no idea how good!  

I was anticipating some speed bar use, and ate my banana on the chair up this am. Boy am I glad I had some extra potassium to help my legs on the long full bar glide into goal. No cramps, no problem!

We got to our spot, readied our gear and were looking at the 121 km task (75 miles) in no time. Back to our gear, scarf down the yummy sandwich from our lunch bag and huck the fruit which was too small, too tart and not ready.  But we were. 

By the time we were ready to launch, there were gaggles going up over our heads. Everyone got off clean and it was another perfect start. 

I used every minute to get in position and the armada sped off to the east and skimmed under the clouds to the end of the range. Then most headed on a long shady glide to the valley where I got low for my one and only time for the day. I was able to rejoin the group and charge with Nick, Arnie, Josh and Erick to the first turn point where it seemed like all 150 pilots were there too. 

Nick was on fire today and boldly led out from slower gaggle climbs and found boomer after boomer. 

The glide back to the next turn point was high and crowded. Climb after climb was nothing more than topping off the tanks back near cloud. Eventually we ended up right over town (Sopot) and there was a cloud street to the next turn point on the south side of the valley.  We beemed up and over the valley, tagged the point and were looking for a big climb to cross west again, where many landed the day before. It was hard to reach the top so many headed west anyway, marking climbs where yesterday there were none. 

The final TP (turn point) was just ahead 12 km or so, and it looked shaded from giant clouds. 

Cloud flying has been a problem here and we were warned over the radio that penalties would be assessed for using clouds flying (in the cloud) to your advantage. 

Side note:

3 pilots from yesterday were penalized and received a zero score. The gaggle got sucked up yesterday and in trying to get down a near midair collision causes one pilot to stall his glider as the last second to avoid the crash. In doing so, he lost control of the wing, got a huge cravat and line- over (not fixable) and was forces to throw his reserve. He landed safely in trees.

Back to the last turn point glide!

It looked buoyant but that turned out to be the understatement of the week. Once under the convergent gray cloud it was more or less full speed bar to the TP and back again to goal.  Rob Sporrer (our team coach, captain, chauffeur, shade maker, sponsor, and 100 other things) was strategically calling out surface wind speed and direction at key points along the day's task on our team radio frequency. He was in goal ahead of us letting TEAM USA know that it would be a fast final glide so we were able to not waste time from the last TP climbing in lift unnecessarily on the glide to goal. 

Josh, Eric and Nick were in ahead of me Arnie and Brett (our Canadian roomie).  It looked like at least 100 pilots came streaming in. It was great to be part of the armada this time!

When I see that beautiful white stripe on the ground it means I made the 2km end of speed section and now I have all the time I want to leisurely cross it. This is what I look like:

It was great to fly with the whole TEAM and land with them too!  We flew about 75 miles in around 3.5 hours.  That's like driving straight for 75 miles at 20 mph.  When you consider we fly at trim (no acceleration) at around 20-22 mph in a paraglider, that is a fast day!  We love this kinda flying!

I've been living in my Pearl Izumi gear, from socks and shoes, to leg warmers, vest, jacket, balaclava and tech T-shirt. Thanks so much for sponsoring me P.I.!!! Thanks to my friend  Don Karle and Stacie Schuchardt for the hookup with PI. 

Thanks also to all the other sponsors that have decked us out too, like Flytec, FFF, XC Skies, KAVU, Goal Zero, Eagle (and Rob Sporrer for his selfless service to all of us), Super Fly, Uncle Freakin Tony too.  There are many others, so I apologize for not listing them all here. You all rule. 

Thanks also to my lovely wife Carmen and all my kids for surviving without me. I honestly wouldn't be here if it weren't for her support and encouraging me along the way.  Love youuu!

Okay. Sappy (yet hearfelt) time is over. 

Cheers!

Marty

You guessed it.  Off to eat another (well deserved?!) home cooked meal.  Yay TEAM!  

It's Ana time!