Slo-mo-shun!

Lots of boats on the lake!

The Wedding Night Duck Dodge continued our amazing warm, sunny weather and light wind pattern. Full Moon crew Michael “Padre” Medina, Marcelle “Flapper” van Houten, Christian “Top Hat” Grange, Neil “Wedding Crasher” Piispanen, Daniel “Blue Box” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Edison” Mengedoht were fairly well positioned for the start but an initial tack onto port had to be aborted to clear oncoming starboard tack boats. Then, a decision to favor the east side of the course in hopes of clear air proved disastrous as the wind proved much better toward the middle of the lake.

Bride with Beer.

By the end of the extremely painful first leg to the Freeway buoy, Full Moon was deep toward the back of the second start fleet and had been passed by a number of third start boats plus some dinghies from fourth start. The only good news: the Thunderbird Selchie, which had gotten hung up on the buoy, had freed herself before Full Moon arrived! Thankfully, the wind picked up on the second leg to the Aurora buoy and the spinnaker reach/run to the AGC buoy briefly brought Full Moon’s speed up over six knots.

Second start. Full Moon is somewhere to the left, going slow...

Good speed heading back upwind finished the first lap but it was difficult to tell if the Race Committee had finished the second start (we saw at least one second start boat with headsail down) or whether we were on for the full two laps. With our old rival Zephyr ahead and still sailing, though, Full Moon continued racing.

First downwind leg. Full Moon is at the far left, way back there!

After rounding the Freeway buoy, Full Moon gained a bit on Zephyr. A nice turn at the Aurora buoy with a quick hoist of the Equalizer brought additional hope of catching our rival but Zephyr maintained good speed all the way to the AGC buoy. The final leg upwind brought no change and Zephyr finished ahead by 50 yards. Meanwhile, the beer and Prosecco were ice cold, the evening comfortably warm, and a great time was had by all.

Toga, Toga, Toga!

The start was fairly crowded. Full Moon is just to the right of the yellow boat.

The threatened clouds held off for another dry Tuesday and the Toga Night Duck Dodge. Full Moon crew Art “Skirt” Teller, Chad “Skirt Me” Harnish, Dave “Silver Bullet” Pulsifer, Julia “Milk Maid” Horner, Daniel “Music Deprivation” Mengedoht, and skipper John “No Spinnaker” Mengedoht enjoyed a decent start, clear of a tight knot of boats at the Committee Boat but a few seconds later than ideal. A large Catalina blocked the light wind for a while on a tight reach but Full Moon worked clear to windward and around before closing up on the sterns of speedy Scat and several J24s just before rounding the AGC buoy.

The Full Moon crew enjoys having a little wind on the second leg.

The next leg had wind that alternated between decent and very light with an E-Scow gaining in the stronger stuff and Full Moon gaining in the lighter air. It was a fairly straight shot to the Freeway buoy and, once around, Full Moon just hardened up a few degrees before tacking toward the Aurora buoy. Delaying the tack paid off well as Full Moon was able to fetch the buoy without a tack.

The sun heads for the horizon all too early as Full Moon crosses the north end of the lake.

The course required going through the finish line on the first lap in case the course was shortened, though a number of boats appeared to have forgotten this. With a fairly tight reach, Full Moon elected once again to use the jib rather than the spinnaker. With the wind filling in, this provided the most speed of the evening and Full Moon passed and then stayed just ahead of the J30 Slingshot to take a very respectable 12^th place in what did turn out to be a one-lap race.

Tropic Thunder

Very light air at the start.

The threatened thunderstorms never appeared for the Tropical Night Duck Dodge, and the rain (mostly) held off until after the race, which ran into the dark in predominantly light winds. Full Moon crew Art “Coy” Teller, Randy “Emma Stone” Olsen, Kelly “Malibu” Laleman, Erin “Dos Equis” Osberg, Daniel “Boombox” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Turn It Down!” Mengedoht had a decent start near the middle of the very long starting line, though behind arch-rival Zephyr (San Juan 28). The wind filled in a bit heading toward the AGC buoy, allowing Full Moon to pick off a yellow Thunderbird and gain a little on Zephyr. From the AGC, it was a short leg to the floating “island” sponsored by 48 Degrees North, Marine Servicenter, and Fremont Brewing to grab some free beer (which was quite good) and an even shorter leg to the Chandler’s Cove buoy, which Full Moon nearly missed (and a few other boats did miss…).

The "island" is ready to dispense beer.

Runaway on the first spinnaker leg.

The “Mighty Isis” spinnaker was then launched and Full Moon took a fairly direct course northward while Zephyr and the Norlin 34 Runaway trended a bit to the west. Full Moon’s course and/or ability to keep moving in the light air paid off as Full Moon got past Zephyr and Runaway as well as the T-bird Zoe before rounding the Freeway buoy. Zoe got back ahead briefly to leeward on the long trip back south until Full Moon found a bit more breeze and pulled ahead for good.

Full Moon pulls ahead of Runaway and Zephyr.

After rounding the AGC buoy and swinging by the “island” again (which was, unfortunately, out of beer), Full Moon was overtaken by Runaway, which had skipped the island. (The island was part of the course…) After rounding the Cove buoy, the spinnaker was launched for a very light air run with Full Moon again favoring a fairly direct course to the Freeway buoy and Runaway choosing to jibe a few times at a “hotter” wind angle. Full Moon still managed to pass Runaway before rounding the Freeway buoy and then stayed in front in the dying breeze and dying light to the finish line to place what we believe was fifth.

Drifter

The Prom Night Duck Dodge finally brought the very light winds common to late summer, though it would hard to fault the sunny skies and warm temperatures. Full Moon crew Randy “One Hit Wonders” Olsen, Michael “Booksitter” Medina, Allison “Prom Queen” Bahe, Jonathan “Quick Study” Bahe, Daniel “DJ” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Mirror Ball” Mengedoht were held up on final approach to the starting line by a  barely moving 3^rd start boat and ended up crossing a full minute and a half late. There was a line of wind about halfway down the leg but it seemed to take forever to get to it and, of course, the boats that got there first pulled way ahead.

Full Moon is nearly dead center under the crane. This was the second leg of the race.

Undeterred, Full Moon gained slowly on a knot of boats converging at the AGC buoy and, once around, held off jibing to get some separation before launching the spinnaker. This paid off quite well as Full Moon benefitted from the occasional puff of wind to pass quite a few boats, even catching up to speedy Scat at one point. The wind then shifted from SW to NW and the spinnaker was quickly brought down, maybe a bit too quickly as Full Moon did a little “shrimping.” Soon after, Scat was able to slide past to windward and hold the inside line to the Freeway buoy.

Full Moon chasing Scat on the final leg.

Full Moon held off tacking at the Freeway buoy, choosing a course closer to Gasworks for the leg to the Aurora buoy. This proved to be a wise decision as Full Moon crossed ahead of Scat further on, though Scat managed to poke back in front before rounding the buoy.

Another gorgeous evening on the lake.

The leg south was now a broad reach and the Equalizer was hoisted, though it went up with a twist. The light air made it fairly easy to rectify but Scat took advantage to pull farther ahead. With such light wind, the question was whether the Race Committee would call the race after one lap or not. There was a double blast of the air horn at one point but it came among blasts for finishing boats from 3^rd start so it was hard to determine if it meant anything. A few boats had obviously quit racing but Full Moon kept going to the AGC buoy, just in case. At that point, it was pretty clear that the racing was done and Full Moon converted to cruiser mode, drifting slowly northward to catch the sunset.