2nd day Womens comp

Day 2 of the womens comp saw the task starting earlier to avoid the blown out take off conditions. This was tricky as it saw a lot of pilots struggling in the weak conditions, many of them landing. Some managed to maintain on the cliffs and they pushed on to the start. Stony winds from the west soon put most of them on the deck. I had got very low and took a while to get back up to lower ridge height. 
I joined a gaggle of pilots in a scrappy thermal and we climbed for a while then dove for the main ridge. This worked for myself and Judith Mole, the rest landed. 
One girl Nadia on an Advance Omega 8 had a large collapse above me. I looked up and saw something falling from her harness. Was that her reserve parachute? No, it kept falling. Oh my god, it's her head!!! The risers on her glider (the webbing straps that connect the harness to the lines) had twisted and and pulled her helmet clean off!! She flew back to the landing after that!
Not many of the pilots managed to get the start. Most landed soon after and a few managed to get back up, on to the seccod turnpoint and over the back towards goal. No one made goal, the closest being an agonising 1km short. Special mention to the Spanish girl who arived late to take off, hung over, then flew close to goal on a poor performing Nova Rookie!  
In the evening we had an excursion to the local observatory where we watched a superb film on a dome above our heads whilst we were laid back on comfortable arm chairs. Then we had a look through the 40" telescope at the moon and a cluster of thousands of stars....