Gotcha!

Full Moon crew Randy “Does It All” Olsen, Galina “Gripper” Gordeeva, Katie “Rusty Red Wagon” Freels, Sara “I Hear Nothing” Skinner, and skipper John “Slow” Mengedoht nailed the start for Duck Dodge No. 9 but inexplicably struggled upwind on the first leg and fell back to 12th to round the Aurora buoy. Launching the mighty Equalizer spinnaker helped considerably for the downwind leg and Full Moon began to gain on some Thunderbirds and a J24 while leaving the back half of the fleet well behind.

Returning upwind from the AGC buoy to the Freeway mark, Full Moon found the groove and made the most of the wind shifts, continuing to slowly gain on boats ahead. The often challenging leg past Gasworks Park saw no change but on the second downwind leg, Full Moon finally engaged two T-birds, Predator and Zoe, while holding off a pesky red Santana 20. Full Moon prevailed at the end of the run and rounded the AGC buoy with Predator a few boatlengths behind.

Charging ahead upwind, Full Moon held off the three challengers and, midway up the lake, passed a J24 as well to move into ninth. Closer to the Freeway buoy, Full Moon crossed paths with relative giant Mata Hari, forcing Mata Hari to duck behind. Not far ahead, the J22 Bullet was struggling a bit, too close to the Eastlake shore. The wind gods smiled and Full Moon enjoyed a favorable shift right to the buoy and moved up to 7th. One leg to go!

With the course to the finish a bit iffy for the spinnaker, Full Moon made the right call and stayed with the genoa, easily holding onto 7th for the best finish of the summer! With some cold beer and a nearly cloudless sky, it was a great evening on the water.