Smiffy and I have lifted our game.  We both flew our first 100kms plus today.  I almost sunk out at Hydra after 10kms.  After getting away on my first winch it was almost a sad ending having flown myself into a tight wedge of powerlines with no height to get over the intense network of cables and continue.  Hung in there for ages facing into wind over a small pile of iron red rocks giving off some heat, barely above the pylons, sweating and almost  being psyched out into landing. But I have a new focus and mantra - 'never give up'.  Hung in long enough until the thermal fully developed, got a little stronger and then a few turns told me we were finally going up and could get over the lines and we were off again.

The first 20kms were rough with 6.5ms climbs and 5.5ms down but after that we could climb to 4250m ASL where it was shivering cold and the view spectacular.  Water worked very well.  Most of the time we were cruising between 2500 and 3800 ASL although Wayne had a few low 400mAGL saves.  Greg and Wayne flew gaggle together with occasional company from Ulf.  The rest of us flew independently.  The going was slow.  108kms took me 3 hours and concentration started to lapse.  Need to train for longer distance flying.  Guess I am at the right place for that over the next week :-)))