This is August?

Randy and Galina on the high side.

Sara has a good time.

Cap'n John enjoys the wind and, yes, it is way too dark!

On the final evening of August, the string of sunny Tuesdays came to an abrupt end with dark low clouds and a boisterous southerly breeze. Full Moon crew Randy “Buoy-Finder” Olsen, Galina “Little Bit” Gordeeva, Sara “Grinder” Skinner, and skipper John “Fat Lady” Mengedoht hunkered down in the gusts and were set for a good start until an errant jib sheet made hash of the final tack for the line.
Overpowered upwind with full main and genoa, Full Moon fought to avoid rounding up but made steady progress to the AGC buoy, crossing tacks with old rival Shogun. Once around the buoy, Shogun and a white T-bird threatened but Full Moon held them off with good speed in the fast reach to the Challenger buoy.

With the wind holding strong Full Moon elected not to fly a spinnaker, though it would have helped on the long downwind run to the Aurora buoy. Fortis flew one and extended their lead to become uncatchable. The white T-bird hoisted theirs after waiting a bit while Shogun slogged on with the genoa. Shogun rode a gust to pass Full Moon and took the opportunity to gloat at finally beating Full Moon for the first time all summer – but were quickly reminded that the race was not yet over!

Once around the Aurora buoy, Full Moon was able to point much higher than Shogun upwind and to also get by the white T-bird. The T-bird made a race of it all the way to the finish but couldn’t quite catch up, even with Full Moon caught in round-up right at the line, and Shogun skipped the line altogether, perhaps embarrassed at losing to Full Moon once again! In the end, Full Moon was about eighth in a reduced fleet – a solid finish given the conditions.