Watermelon Beer

Heading upwind on the 3rd leg.

The Pajama Night Duck Dodge was pretty windy before the start and Full Moon crew Chuck “Salty Dog” Weldy, Dave “Learning Experience” Pulsifer, Allison “Watermelon Beer” Bahe, Alex “Rookie” Arreola, Daniel “Pac-Man” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Bucket of Ratchets” Mengedoht opted to set things up with the ancient small spinnaker instead of the Equalizer, partly due to lack of experience on the foredeck. Full Moon got a good start on port tack clear of traffic near the buoy end but boats closer to the Committee Boat were still (mostly) able to lay the Freeway buoy without tacking so some of the faster boats got ahead.

Chuck, Dave, and Daniel in the dimming light.

The course then went directly to the AGC buoy, which meant that boats from behind (or later starts) were sailing directly at boats on the second leg, making for some close calls. Full Moon hoisted the spinnaker on the second leg but it wasn’t much faster, if any, than the genoa, given the wind angle. The spinnaker came down nicely at the AGC buoy rather than jibe for the broad reach to the Chandler’s buoy. Once around Chandler’s, it was a nearly straight upwind shot back to the Freeway buoy, with only two short tacks on final approach.

Another fantastic evening on the water.

The spinnaker stayed in the bag for the “downwind” leg, the wind consistently tighter than a beam reach. Two more legs and Full Moon was done, finishing roughly tenth. It was a beautiful evening on the lake, though the sun sets WAY too early! I can’t believe there are only two more Duck Dodge races!