Hazy Daze

With wildfires burning in British Columbia, conditions were a bit hazy for the Toga Night Duck Dodge. The wind, meanwhile, was highly variable and challenging to predict. Full Moon crew Randy “Two Jibes” Olsen, Adam “Cookie” Michalak, Chad “Temperature Sensor” Harnish, Mary “Penalty Weight” Harnish, Marcus “Onboard Medic” Engley, Daniel “Eclectic Mix” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Yellow Buoy” Mengedoht joined a large group of boats attempting a port tack start at the advantaged “pin” end of the line. Boats closer to the middle of the line were able to enjoy more clear air and poke out ahead.

The start near the "pin" end was a bit congested!

Full Moon eventually emerged from the pack only to encounter the wind shadow of a much larger boat directly ahead. Prevented from tacking by another boat to windward, Full Moon had to sail a lower course to break free. For all that, Full Moon remained ahead of 40’ Thundorca and a Beneteau 423 to round the Freeway buoy.

Spinnakers were hard to keep full in the light air downwind.

With ongoing traffic, Full Moon then took a high line to maintain clear air on the straight shot to the Aurora buoy. This worked fairly well until the wind faded out approaching the buoy. Once around, the Equalizer was launched and then soon jibed in hopes of stronger wind near the middle of the lake. This did help a bit but the wind remained mostly light until jibing back toward the AGC buoy where Full Moon was lapped by the big first start boat Absolutely.

The smoke in the air made for an especially colorful sunset.

The final leg was fairly straightforward apart from splitting the narrow distance between two drifting speedboats. In the end, Full Moon placed fifth, a commendable result given the difficult start and all the people on board.