Lots of sink often means that somewhere nearby there's lots of lift...
Getting Low Down near Friston and East Dean
Lots of sink often means that somewhere nearby there's lots of lift, drawing the air into it and causing sink all around, so I looked around and 'felt' the air through the glider. This is the kind of situation where having a glider that gives good feedback is huge advantage! The wing was telling me that the lift was off to my right (even though the sky really didn't look good that way), so I decided to trust in the wing, banked hard right and went on a committed glide towards Friston and East Dean. I was either going to find a climb soon, or I would land soon after!
Sure enough, a few seconds later I hit a whopping climb, which started at around 2.8m/s on my Vario's 30 second average (that's pretty strong for the UK!), and increased to averaging 3.4m/s, all the way to base at 3800ft. Yippee!!... Now I knew why there had been so much sink where I was before.