Lawyerboy, well done!
Sounds like you handled things pretty well, and had a good learning experience too! The first time you get lost (sorry, become temporarilly uncertain of your position) is scary - but when you manage to find yourself again, it gives you a huge confidence boost, because now you know that you're capable of sorting things out if they do go wrong.
My only comment would be in response to your comment: "When I realised I couldn't recognise the landscape anymore I should have... retraced my steps." I'd disagree with that. If the wind is doing sufficiently strange things to blow you to somewhere you don't recognise, then it's probably strong enough that doing a simple 180-degree turn won't work. And you can't compensate for the wind in your turn, since you don't know what the wind is doing right now. I'd suggest that you're far better off staying where you are - circle around an obvious point on the ground if necessary. You know how long ago you were at the prominent landmark (hopefully you noted it on your log, but if not you'll at least have a rough idea), and you know how fast you've been going and roughly what direction you've been going, so you know
roughly where you are. Now, find two or three features on the ground, and then locate them on your chart. But the fact that you got home safely shows that there's more than one way to skin a cat - what you did obviously worked, and that's the important thing!
Also, if you depart from your plan for any reason (such as when you turned around to try to get back on track, or if you decide to circle while you identify your position), make sure you note down on your log what you're doing and what time you're doing it. Then, if you still can't figure out where you are, at least you've got a log of what headings you've been flying and for how long, and hopefully you can use that to plot your actual course, or something close to it.
Congrats!
FFF
-------------