Vodka Duck

Dave hands off the traditional gift to the Race Committee.

Randy and John enjoying some end-of-summer sun in the pre-start.

Aboard Full Moon, the final Duck Dodge race is always Martini Night, celebrating the summer season with various vodka-based cocktails. Crew Randy “Yanker” Olsen, Art “Olives” Teller, Michael “Monkey” Medina, Marcelle “Hat” Lynde, Dave “Apple?” Pulsifer, Daniel “Generous Pour” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Sideways” Mengedoht were positioned reasonably well for the light-wind start and quickly hoisted the Equalizer for the close-reach first leg.

Passing Fortis to leeward with the Mighty Isis, aka the Equalizer. Yes, the pole should be lower...

That's Full Moon in the middle distance, heeled a bit to try and fill the sails.

Entering the dead zone at the AGC buoy.

This worked fairly well until the wind died on final approach to the AGC buoy, effectively condensing half the first start, all of second start, and a good part of third start into a drifting mass of bumper boats. Full Moon quickly dropped the spinnaker, joined the giant pinwheel, and then looked for an exit, slowly heading east to get away. About this time, an electric boat came by with free samples of Six Strawberries Artisan Ice Pops, a very nice treat and pleasant distraction from the lack of wind.

Escaping the morass.

This Catalina tries some alternate spinnaker technology to catch the wind up high...

 Eventually, of course, the wind began to fill in from the north and Full Moon was under way, seemingly alone other than a pair of 505 dinghies. Approaching the Freeway buoy, our friends on Cinc-o-Sink came up fast from behind and, while they never established an overlap, Full Moon swung wide to let them inside, partly to make sure there was room to tack away from an approaching gravel barge!

The final leg in fading light.

Daniel likes this stuff!

Dave, too!

Randy and Art have their buzz on...

The leg to the Aurora buoy was uneventful, once past the barge, and then it was time to hoist the spinnaker again for the downwind run to the finish. Crossing the line, Michael hailed the Committee (in jest) as to whether we’d won a duck. Amazingly, a horn was sounded, typically meaning a top three finish of some kind! Since Full Moon appeared to be no better than eighth in the second start fleet, this seemed very odd. Looping back around, sure enough the Committee extended a prize via boat hook.

It turns out somebody thought Full Moon had been in third start. This discrepancy was quickly cleared up – and we hope the Committee awarded a duck to the real second place boat – but, since the shiny silver sticker was on board and not easily returned, the crew decided that this must be the Vodka Duck for Fifth Start (there was definitely a fifth or two at the start…).

The Vodka Duck is applied to the boom, appropriately disoriented, where some hardware used to be. That pretty much fills the boom!

All in all, it was a great evening to complete the summer racing season. Thanks, as always, to the Race Committee and to the nineteen different crew members who joined the fun for a race or two or ten. Next up: The Rum Run!