Wet Martinis

Michael "helps" Tammy load the boat.

Apart from a few drops on Tropical Night, no rain fell on a Duck Dodge all summer – until the final race, that is, when a summer’s worth of rain all came down at once! Crew Randy “Quick Knot” Olsen, Michael “Giant Nuts” Medina, Marcelle “Queen of Sheba” van Houten, Tammy “Poncho” Cross, Dave “Baba Ganoush” Pulsifer, Judy “Is That All You’ve Got?” Tiffany, Daniel “Bare Hands” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Crazy Ivan” Mengedoht were dampened, not discouraged, and well prepared to celebrate “Martini Night,” Full Moon’s theme for the evening.

 

Heading out into the rain.

Officially, of course, it was Committee Re-appreciation Night. Dropping off the usual appreciation gift for the Race Committee proved somewhat perilous, though, as Full Moon, motoring slowly, was nearly run over by the giant J145 Jedi, which unexpectedly went into reverse without looking behind them!

Beagle braves the downpour.

Once clear of traffic and dialed into the starting sequence, Full Moon lined up for a decent start on starboard tack behind the T-bird Zoe and the J24 Beagle. Unfortunately, a Santa Cruz 27, Zipper, had some issues right at the line, causing Full Moon to fall off a bit and lose a bit of ground. Once going and a bit farther up the first leg, Zipper then had trouble tacking at the last second to avoid a large white boat on starboard. All this caused Full Moon to hold off on tacking for a while but the tack, when it came, provided Full Moon a perfect line to the Freeway buoy in the puffy and shifty wind.

 

Judy, Dave, and John enjoy the rain.

Rounding the buoy in 8^th place, Full Moon tacked for the tight reach past Gasworks as the wind faded a bit. A nice jibe set at the Aurora buoy brought up the mighty Equalizer and Full Moon headed for the center of the lake, constantly playing the spinnaker and altering course to try and keep the nylon monster full. The middle of the lake paid off well as Full Moon picked off a few boats and gained on Gift Horse, a fast 27-footer, as well as Beagle.

 

Daniel stays dry while Randy and Judy share a laugh.

After rounding the AGC buoy, Gift Horse was moving slowly and Full Moon tacked to get clear before tacking back to avoid oncoming spinnaker traffic. Approaching the eastern side of the lake, Full Moon crossed in front of Gift Horse with a thin margin and then enjoyed a nice lift to get within striking distance of Beagle. In the end, though, Gift Horse managed third place behind a J24 and Zoe with Beagle taking fourth and Full Moon fifth, only a few seconds behind.

 

Full Moon heads east before tacking to the starting line.

To recap the summer season, not counting Cap’n John, a whopping 28 different people were part of the Full Moon racing crew at some point. This included 12 brand new crew members introduced to Priorities 1-4 (personal safety, boat safety, HAVING FUN, sailing well), learning to trim and tack the jib, and helping to bring in the spinnaker.

 

The sun poked through now and then as the third start fleet heads past Gasworks.

Our performance highlights were placing third in the very first race and placing fifth three times. Apart from Over the Hill Night (with the Distance debacle) and Wedding Night, Full Moon was always in the top half of the fleet and often in the top third. We had relatively good success vs. the T-birds, none of them beating Full Moon with regularity, though there was often one of them ahead at the finish. Arch-rival Zephyr managed to place in front only four times.

 

Full Moon flies the Equalizer en route to the AGC buoy.

Apart from the finale, the weather was amazing, with lots of sun and usually decent wind as well. Most importantly, we had fun out there. Next up: The Rum Run!