The wind was fairly strong and out of the south/southwest for the start of the Decades Night Duck Dodge. With starboard tack near the pin end (Westlake shore) strongly favored, Full Moon crew Michael “Jackson” Medina, Daniel “60s” Mengedoht, Robert “Pilsner” Leykam, Lucienne “Deck Ornament” Grace, and skipper John “Wet T-Shirt” Mengedoht ran the line on port tack, ducked a few boats, and tacked to cross the line in roughly tenth place. Calling tacks on the shifts proved challenging, and, with a fair amount of traffic, Full Moon ended up with a couple of extra tacks before rounding the AGC buoy, though Full Moon still got past a few boats on this leg.
Once around, Full Moon headed east for a short distance before gybing and hoisting the Equalizer. This enabled passing a few more boats, including some from second start, though it was difficult to get by some others. A conservative drop allowed the less risk-averse to close a bit from behind but getting the nylon monster down was a bigger priority.
The next leg should have been an easy and fast reach and so it was for a while. However, the Aurora buoy had been placed as far north as possible (not sure why) and in a relatively windless hole. Full Moon had taken a northly course (shortest distance between two points…) and this proved disastrous as the wind was worst closest to shore (or ships). While not exactly moving fast, other boats coming from further out were able to get by.
The final leg was a straight shot on a close reach, some boats staying closer to Westlake while Full Moon and some others decided the Committee Boat was closer – and maybe in better wind. In the end, Full Moon finished about eighth, not bad all things considered. Unfortunately, some rain interrupted the post-race cruising, though it was dark by then anyway!
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