Barged!

Full Moon crew Eileen “Packing Peanuts” McHugh, Casey “Dread Pirate” Riske, Art “Salad” Teller, Michael “Squirt Guns” Medina, and skipper John “Big Plumber” Mengedoht enjoyed a decent second row start for the Pirate Night Duck Dodge, though it took a few choice pirate curses to avoid collision with a wayward port tack boat. Once clear, all rivals but Shogun were behind and Full Moon made good speed upwind on the first leg toward the Aurora Bridge.

Approaching the buoy, however, a barge and tug appeared from the open mouth of the Fremont Bridge, the tug skipper no doubt dismayed at the spectacle of dozens of sailboats in his path (over 70 boats were racing!). Full Moon had no choice but to keep clear and, while this also affected boats behind, it allowed the boats in front to gain considerably over the rest of the fleet. Once past the tug, though, the Equalizer spinnaker pulled strongly, leaving rivals Fortis and Ignitor far behind and closing the gap at least a little on Shogun.

Returning upwind, Full Moon again had good speed and gained on a few boats. Approaching the Aurora buoy on the second lap, Shogun was less than fifty yards ahead. Heading downwind with spinnakers flying, Shogun veered toward the center of the lake while Full Moon stayed closer to the Westlake side, the net result being no gain and Shogun still ahead.

The final two legs were upwind where Full Moon would normally have an advantage but the wind was getting lighter and Shogun’s skipper proved skilled at finding the brief pulses of stronger breeze. In the end, Full Moon could not quite catch up. However Fortis remained far behind and arch-rival Ignitor struggled badly with half a lap still to go as Full Moon finished in a very respectable tenth place. Meanwhile, the amazing and unusual June weather made for yet another fabulous evening on the water.