Pajamarama

Erin, Ian, and Chad enjoy the first reach down the lake under spinnaker.

The Pajama Night Duck Dodge continued our amazing string of hot sunny days combined with a pleasant northerly breeze to cool things off. Full Moon crew Marcelle “Ducky” Lynde, Michael “Beer Management” Medina, Erin “Shorts” Osberg, Chad “Pants” Harnish, Ian “Big Pull” Mengedoht and skipper John “Big Move” Mengedoht went for a conservative starboard tack start near the Committee Boat. The other end of the line was highly advantaged, though, so this proved a poor choice. (The plan was to have been farther down the line at the horn. Oh, well!) Three tacks later, Full Moon rounded the Aurora buoy somewhere in the middle of the fleet and quickly hoisted the Equalizer. This helped considerably as Full Moon caught up to a large group of boats, including our old rival Ignitor, on a long beam reach south down the lake.

Father and Son, post-race, with our spiffy new duck flag (thanks, Marcelle!)

 Unfortunately, catching up is not quite the same as passing and Full Moon ended up just behind the group doing a “pinwheel” rounding of the AGC buoy with no room to go anywhere but to leeward of everyone as they jibed around. Once clear of the traffic, Full Moon did well upwind, gaining back most of what had been lost at the buoy. After rounding the Freeway buoy, Full Moon romped westward to the Aurora buoy, finally passing Ignitor and a few other boats in the process.

 

Another glorious evening on the lake comes to a close.

With another smooth launching of the Equalizer, Full Moon headed south with good speed, picking off a few more boats, including two T-birds. Approaching the AGC buoy, Full Moon was able to get to leeward and inside the T-bird Valkyrie, which was also inside of a few other boats and rival Zephyr. This allowed Full Moon to pass four or five boats in one shot rounding the buoy and be nicely positioned for the upwind leg. After rounding the Freeway buoy, it was a tight reach to the finish line in a good breeze. Zephyr threatened a bit from behind (it is a bigger boat) but could not overcome Full Moon’s lead. In the end, Full Moon was about 15th, ahead of three T-birds and behind two others – a great recovery from the poor start.