Cowboys and Aliens

It was great to see another Santana 525, Flying Burrito, out racing for the Western Night Duck Dodge. Welcome to the Duck Dodge!

Crew Michael “Jib, Jab, Jibe” Medina, Marcelle “Twisted” Van Houten, Beth “Jazz Fan 1” Mountsier, Jim “Jazz Fan 2” Peacey, and skipper John “Wrong Way” Mengedoht cruised the starting line on starboard tack but were thwarted from tacking for a great start by a Star boat to windward and just behind. The resulting reach to the Freeway buoy was not fast enough to be in the top ten boats.

Pulling strings on the first downwind run.

The wind dropped quite a bit on the way to the Aurora buoy but the pole was up before rounding and the Equalizer quickly launched for what started as a beam reach. The fickle wind then made a massive shift for an unplanned jibe. Once sorted, the wind naturally shifted back after only a few minutes. Another jibe, Michael! Regardless, Full Moon did well on the leg to the AGC buoy. Unfortunately, after rounding, the skipper forgot the Chandler’s Cove buoy was in play and Full Moon had to broad reach back. This allowed a white Thunderbird to get by and allowed ancient rival Ignitor to nearly catch up.

Keeping out of the wind shadow.

Once northbound again, Full Moon did well with only a few tacks to reach the Freeway buoy and then the wind generally held to the Aurora buoy. The Equalizer was again smoothly launched but this time the wind shifted and then shut down completely, collapsing the nylon monster around the forestay. The mess was just cleared and the jibe completed when the wind filled back in on the other side, initiating yet another jibe. During all this fun, 34’ Runaway got past toward the Westlake shore. Full Moon gave chase but had to contend with a Catalina trying to create a wind shadow from behind.

An awesome sunset to cap a great evening on the water.

Once around the AGC buoy, the Catalina was left well behind and Full Moon gained a bit on Runaway before rounding the Chandler’s Cove buoy. The final leg was a see-saw battle, Runaway just crossing tacks ahead of Full Moon at the line. With a well spread-out fleet, it was tough to tell the exact finishing order but Full Moon appeared to be 12^th, which was excellent given the competition.