Day 4 Wrapup; Day 5 underway

I am starting to sound like a broken record, but it is true: it is another hot day here in Vinon. Today, cirrus clouds were hanging around our area and they are still here to some degree now (14:15) It looks very blue around here, with a few puffy cu way off to the Northeast.

Here are today's tasks.
Club Class will do a 406.6 km racing task shaped like a butterfly or a bow tie depending on how you look at these things. First turn is Plampinet to the Northeast, Then to La Cluse to our northwest, then back to the east to Jausiers, which is near the high mountain town of Barcelonette, then home.

World Class will also do a racing task of 269.7 km shaped like a bow tie, but to Orpierre first, then to Aiguines east of us, then to Seyne and home. I expect it to be a challenging day...

So, yesterday was an interesting, albeit frustrating day for most pilots, including ours. "Nothing was easy," they all said. After many long hours in the cockpit, all of our pilots mase it home (hooray) and although the club class pilots were not pleased with their speeds, I would submit that survival was a big enough achievement. Tim McA ended up 22nd on the day, Dave Stevenson was 28th, and Tim Welles was 33rd. But today is a new day, and they are all on task now.

In World Class, Francois and Pat had caught up with the French team, who do seem to be the ones to beat, during the first leg of the task. However, the French took a different route back home and somehow outpaced our guys, who ended up 10th (Francois) and 13th (Pat) respectively.

Now for the photo caption contest! Please submit your caption for the photo below and I will choose a winner tomorrow. The lucky winner will receive a goodie bag of assorted WGC swag. The pictured unfortunate PW-5 pilot, Paul Schofield of New Zealand ruptured his achilles tendon by stepping in a pothole while running after his trailer after landing out on Day 2. Now, Paul is a special friend of the US Team and we do wish him the best, but the situation also begs for a special caption!





















And in other photos...














Dave Stevenson with his wife and crew Meredith, yesterday - 19 July.















Tim Welles after his outlanding at La Motte Chalcon on the day of Mudfest. This is the altiport where tow pilots must have a special certificate to fly there.















Neil, the Team captain of GB gives his best dour Scotsman smile.
















Yesterday in the pool - left to right: Sylvie, Megan, Jan and me.