Too Cold For Shorts

The weather was gray with scattered showers for the “Mom Jeans and Dad Shorts” Duck Dodge but at least there was a little wind. Michael “Bungie Cord” Medina, Marcelle “First Pack” Van Houten, Erin “Nauti-Mom” Osberg, Troy “GQ” Charlesworth, and skipper John “Leopard Slug” Mengedoht enjoyed a decent start near the middle of the line, though boats closer to the buoy seemed to fare a bit better.

Erin and Michael show off their Dad Shorts.

A couple of tacks were needed to clear both the AGC buoy plus a bit of traffic going around but Full Moon soon took off north on a close reach with the mighty Equalizer spinnaker. The wind clocked further north about three quarters of the way to the Freeway buoy and the Equalizer came down again, though not without a fight as the wind wanted to push it out behind the boat.

Full Moon battles Necessary Evil under spinnaker.

The relatively short leg past Gasworks to the Aurora buoy was uneventful. With the wind angle change, the next leg south was good for a spinnaker but, unfortunately, the Equalizer and pole were not ready for action and Full Moon lost some ground to boats that could fly theirs immediately. Then, a few hundred yards from the AGC buoy, the wind clocked back into the southwest (possibly a velocity header) and Full Moon quickly dropped the spinnaker. Not far behind, the Catalina 30 Necessary Evil kept their spinnaker up and, as the fickle wind swung back to a westerly, were able to slide past to round the buoy just in front of Full Moon.

The Equalizer looking good.

The long leg north was a close reach with enough wind that Full Moon could not catch Necessary Evil. Once around the Freeway buoy, though, it was a different story as Full Moon could sail much closer to the wind. Fifty yards from the Aurora buoy, the boats crossed tacks with Full Moon ahead. This time, the Equalizer was ready for launch at the buoy and Full Moon easily held the lead to the finish line.