Island Jam

Full Moon crew heading out from the dock.

Full Moon crew Sara “Quick Tack” Schroeder, Marcelle “Quick Study” Lynde, Michael “Quick Fix” Medina, Daniel “Quick Pack” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Quick Start” Mengedoht had an awesome start for the Tropical Night Duck Dodge, bested only by one or two boats risking a port tack approach. The line to the Freeway buoy was a straight close reach and Full Moon rounded in close company with Dreams (Olson 25), Scat (custom 25), Mata Hari (Catalina 36), and Distance (Buchan 37).

What is that huge nylon cloud?

Dreams was out in front and stayed there for a while but Full Moon mixed it up well with the other three across Gasworks and to the Aurora buoy, along with the J27 Summer Babe. Troubles with the spinnaker pole delayed launching the mighty Equalizer, preventing any gains on the long beam reach to the AGC buoy. After rounding the buoy, the fleet headed for the floating “island” sponsored by the 48 Degrees North sailing magazine that was dispensing free beer. As all boats had to round the “island,” this made for some interesting maneuvers for those boats most determined to collect some beer!

A thirsty crew approaches the "island."

After the island, boats were required to go through the start/finish line to start the second lap, though apparently the skipper of the big Baba 40 Airloom forgot this detail. Ahem… Regardless, Full Moon had managed to pass Distance somewhere north of the island and rounded the Freeway buoy ahead of both Distance and Airloom. Full Moon continued to hold off Airloom on the beat toward the Aurora buoy but elected to duck behind Distance when crossing tacks approaching the buoy (Full Moon might have crossed in front but better safe than sorry).

Full Moon gains on the fleet on the second lap.

The Equalizer was quickly deployed again for the beam reach south to the AGC buoy and Full Moon reeled in a J24 and J22, which had gotten past at some point, while gaining a fair bit on Mata Hari and then also passing Distance. The J24 gained back some ground approaching the island but then opted not to try and round it, probably due to some slow-moving third start boats clogging the area. Full Moon rounded properly, though it did take a while to get clear as some of the boats were clearly far more interested in the beer than in actually making their boats move!

Approaching the finish line, Distance was gaining from behind but could not quite catch Full Moon, which placed an excellent fifth, discounting the J24, which “cheated” by not rounding the island. The sun set far too early but a great time was had by all!