Solid Gold!

Panorama of the crew, featuring Chuck in the middle with special Mardi Gras adornment.

Full Moon absolutely nailed the start for the Mardi Gras Duck Dodge, rolling into a nice lee bow position on Slingshot (J30) at the pin end and clearing all boats on starboard tack to take the lead. After dodging a few drifting power boats, crew Randy “Traffic” Olsen, Michael “New Wheels” Medina, Chuck “Busty” Weldy, Troy “Data Miner” Charlesworth, Daniel “Baby Driver” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Ratchet Block” Mengedoht caught the back of the second start fleet and rounded the Freeway buoy with nary a tack.

It was a gorgeous evening with lots of boats.

Rounding wide to keep clear of traffic paid off with clear air, Full Moon rolling past several more second start boats on a tight reach to the Aurora buoy. With the apparent wind clocking through 90 degree shifts, the long reach/run to the Chander’s Cove buoy involved a lot of trimming but the Equalizer spinnaker kept Full Moon moving well.

Nice sunset, captured by Michelle Mathison from her Facebook post.

The spinnaker pole trapped the jib sheets when it came down, taking a while to sort, but Full Moon didn’t lose too much speed heading back north. Two tacks later, Full Moon crossed the line to take first place! Summer Sled (Harbor 20) was second, about a minute back, followed by Blue Jeans (C&C 27).