23 July from the crew dude

Slightly worse weather today, with some altostratus to start with, keeping conditions a bit cooler, so that thermals would take longer to get going.  This was forecast so the day amounted to a small window of opportunity.  Eric'll tell you all about it anyway!

We're getting the routine more down pat now; first thing after breakfast was to ballast up the glider then tie it back down in its designated spot.  (Yesterday's bugs had all been wiped off yesterday!)  More gliders have arrived now, and finding tie-down spots has been difficult for them.  Some occupy spots between two gliders and this can make extracting gliders a bit difficult.  There's generally a line-up for the watering points now too!  Getting in early helps a lot.

Some teams have already set up local control points just outside the camping area erecting pergolas.  One or two of those have also installed inflatable portable swimming / paddling pools nearby to beat the hot weather!  Maybe we should do the same.

A minor problem today; well, two in fact,  First was that the dump valve for one tank leaked a bit, causing loss of several litres which had to be balanced up by losing a similar amount from the other tank.  That was done; meantime Eric had a minor communication problem between the EW logger and the XCSoar tablet, which was reasonably quickly rectified by resetting the interface circuit between the two.

I tracked him again using SPOT, and this time managed to be out there for his landing. And in time to get some shots!  I'll leave the decision on which ones to post to Eric.

Forecast for tomorrow is much the same as today, then on Thursday there's a chance of thunderstorms.

Oh, earlier on today, because we had plenty of time to kill, Eric sorted out all his documentation for scrutineering which is tomorrow morning.  Should be all done and good to go!