Muy Caliente!

Thundorca makes a nice Committee Boat.

The Red, White, and Blue Duck Dodge broke temperature records for July 1 and the north breeze on Lake Union felt wonderful. Full Moon crew Chuck "Duct Tape" Weldy, Michelle "How Hard Could It Be" Mathison, Kelly "Second Hand" Laleman, Christian "Patriotic Cans" Grange, and skipper John "Careful Instructions" Mengedoht lined up for the favored port tack start near the "pin" end of the starting line but had to delay the start a bit to avoid starboard tack boats with right of way. The upwind leg to the Aurora buoy went smoothly, though, and a single tack was all that was needed for a good rounding.

A wall of starboard tack boats getting ready for second start.

The Equalizer was soon up and flying for a very fast beam reach straight down the lake to the AGC buoy. This put Full Moon up in the top ten boats for sure with a fairly large gap to the rest of the fleet. The Equalizer didn't want to come down very fast with the wind beam-on but it was collected into the cockpit, slightly wet, before a slightly chaotic rounding of the AGC buoy. The next leg to the Freeway buoy was another straight shot, just cracked off a bit from beating upwind.

Full Moon (lower left) chases a T-bird and a J24 upwind on the first lap.

Full Moon took a slightly southerly route to the Aurora buoy, which worked out well until getting pinned to leeward of the T-bird Invader. Invader eventually tacked and Full Moon followed after dodging a few boats under spinnaker. The rounding went smoothly for Full Moon but not so much for the boats ahead as the big Beneteau 36S7 Vivace shoved their way inside with no overlap rights. I guess if you are late for first start, you do what you have to do?

Michelle dances for her friends on Invader.

It's a loon, not a duck, but still seemed appropriate...

The second spinnaker reach was slow to get going (hardware challenges!) and it proved difficult to get past the giant wind shadow of the first start boat Penelope to leeward but Full Moon finally popped out in front about 100 yards from the AGC buoy. The takedown went a bit better this time around and Full Moon was off again upwind to the Freeway buoy. Unfortunately, boats returning to the finish line were all in line for head-on collisions so all hands were alert to keep that from happening. Full Moon was able to use the oncoming traffic to advantage to hold off hard-charging Slingshot (J30) until just before the buoy. Then it was around and back into traffic for the finish.

Full Moon rounds the AGC buoy on the final lap.

Full Moon chases Slingshot around the Freeway buoy.

In the end, it appeared Full Moon finished about eighth, though word from an onshore observer was that two T-birds in front of us neglected to round the Freeway buoy on the last time around! Either way, it was a fabulous evening dodging the fleet of drifting power boats, kayaks, and paddle boards and enjoying the breeze. It was also great to beat the very fast Hotfoot 27 Flash Point for the first time this season!

The raft-up was still going strong in fading light...