Jammie Time!

Full Moon crew Michael “Butt Cleat” Medina, Chuck “Noser” Weldy, Kate “Sleeper” Austin, Jeremy “Shorts” Jones, Daniel “Tunes” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Nightshirt” Mengedoht enjoyed a relatively great start for the Pajama Night Duck Dodge, zipping across the line on port tack near the buoy end with the Hotfoot 27 Flashpoint and a couple of J24s. Full Moon held off speedy Flashpoint for most of the first leg to the Freeway buoy and rounded in the top ten boats.

Full Moon is dead center in this shot of the second start.

A delayed tack after the buoy provided a straight shot to the Aurora buoy and then a quick launch of the mighty Equalizer spinnaker. The wind had faded a bit at this point and it took a little time and two jibes to really get going but then the wind filled back in for a nice romp to the AGC buoy. The Equalizer came down fairly smoothly and Full Moon was soon heading back upwind and fending off challenges from T-birds Havoc and then Selchie. Full Moon held on across the line to complete the first lap and then nearly to the Freeway buoy before the T-birds finally got by.

Full Moon is just visible to the right, flying the Equalizer.

The next leg was compromised by the appearance of a big barge and pusher tug heading west. Full Moon had to sail a lower angle than desired to allow room for the barge past Gasworks and then put in two tacks to round the Aurora buoy. Once again, the Equalizer was launched, this time with good breeze onto a beam reach. Unfortunately, the wind went flat in a large zone around the AGC buoy, leaving a giant pile-up of drifting boats. Full Moon’s momentum carried to within 50 yards or so the buoy but some gentle fending off was required to keep the bow of the J30 Slingshot from making contact from behind.

The amazing June weather has continued!

Once around the buoy, the game was on to guess where the wind would fill in and from which direction. Full Moon gambled on heading east, if only to get away from the tight cluster of drifting boats. The wind eventually filled in from the north, though, and the gamble did not pay off. Necessary Evil, a Catalina 30, was further west and got going a bit sooner to pass ahead. Full Moon played the developing shifts and was able to point higher into the wind, though, eventually crossing tacks just ahead and crossing the finish line just ahead of Gift Horse, still ahead of Necessarily Evil and at least one T-bird (Zoe) and a few J-boats.