Late Santa

Smoke from wildfires provided a hazy sky.

The Committee Boat apparently had difficulty getting through the locks and the Ballard Bridge for the Christmas in July Duck Dodge, zooming into the lake at the last minute and blowing the first warning before even getting an anchor down. With a little confusion over the horn signals, Full Moon crew Art “Wet Spot” Teller, Marcelle “Waldo Socks” Van Houten, Judy “6.48” Tiffany, Dave “Low Rider” Pulsifer, and skipper John “Surfin’ Safari” Mengedoht was a little late getting the jib up but still managed a decent start on port tack. Slingshot (J30) cast a large wind shadow to slow things down for a while but Full Moon managed a straight line to the green Gasworks buoy which substituted for the missing Freeway buoy.

Judy, Daniel, Marcelle, and Dave enjoy some post-race beverages.

With a bit more westerly wind angle than usual, a couple of tacks were needed to round the Aurora buoy before launching the Equalizer in a nice breeze. Full Moon surged up over six knots in the puffs to pass a few boats and put some distance on old rivals Zephyr and Ignitor before rounding the AGC buoy inside Slingshot, which had taken a wide turn. The wind had gone light around the buoy, though, and it took a while to get moving back northward.

John and Art in the background also enjoying post-race beverages.

Playing the shifts paid off as Full Moon squeezed past the Committee Boat’s anchor rode and arrived at the Gasworks buoy again without tacking. By sailing nearly to the shore, Full Moon tacked on the layline to the Aurora buoy, rounded, and then launched the Equalizer (aka Mighty Isis) for another fast run/reach southward. This time the knotmeter nearly touched 6.5 a couple of times before the wind went light again approaching the AGC buoy.

Deception once again goes all-out on decorations.

After a fairly clean drop and some anxious moments trying to get going upwind in the light air, the wind began to fill and Full Moon headed for the finish line, chasing Slingshot not far ahead. A sleek 6 meter threatened a little but Full Moon stayed ahead to finish somewhere in the top third of the fleet, sailing two full laps in well under an hour.