In the morning I find myself above the clouds with easterly winds from the desert. It looks more consistent than I had thought and so I begin to clean an east-side take-off to be able to start against the land and fly around the summit. But as soon as it is a useable take-off place the wind is gone and it almost looks like tender breath from the sea side. But it remains very tender and the start with the hardly filled glider over the rocky ground is not a good thing, but luckily works. Also the flight is not comparable to my flight some days ago. The sky is whitish, the power of the sun dampened and I am flying at a much lower track and have to use much more time to come around those peaks, I have overflown some days ago. Arriving in Tocopilla I am already 45 minutes late. All I know about crossing Tocopilla does not help, as I just am not high enough and this huddle of hardly to be seen power lines does also not calm my nerves. North of Tocopilla the white sky turns into an completely overcast sky and flying gets a bit smoother, but still low. When the customs at El Loa come into my sight I push to hard to soar alongside the clouds, a strong gust pushes me into it and I get blown back behind the ridge over the canyons that lead to the El Loa river without any chance to escape. Thanks to my acro skills and to the stability of the M6 I manage to come down safely to a side canyons ground. I pack my gear, explore the surroundings and find a take-off at the ridge, but the wind is way to strong for any glider start. So I wait for the wind to calm down towards the night and it does and I start, pass El Loa and fly to sleep in the dunes of Chipana. Arriving there I decide to fly back a bit to a nice plateau, closer to El Loa, which is higher and looks like a good take-off also. O.K., I messed it up today, but I am healthy, no broken bones … and the night up there in the desert, next to El Loa, is a wonderful thing, too.
