Themeless in Seattle

Perhaps the best response to the "no theme" race was this herd of dinosaurs.

Due to protests on social media, the July 17 Duck Dodge became “Themeless in Seattle,” at least for the Race Committee. Full Moon crew Randy “Twisted & Tangled” Olsen, Judy “Wet” Tiffany, Dave “Wetter” Pulsifer, Erin “Cookies” Osberg, Daniel “Frenchy” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Crumbles” Mengedoht managed a front row start but were squeezed between a couple of T-birds to windward and speedy Scat to leeward, the other boats eventually managing to ease forward into clear air. Tacking wasn’t a good option, though, so Full Moon suffered a while in bad air. Calling the tack westward toward the AGC buoy was tricky with all the first start boats coming back under spinnaker but Full Moon had a decent rounding before launching the Equalizer for the long reach/run north.

Heading south toward the AGC buoy. Clear skies!

The drop was somewhat last-minute before rounding the Freeway buoy, the spinnaker only getting a little wet… Then it was a fairly straight shot past Gasworks to the Aurora buoy. Unfortunately, the tack at the buoy revealed jib sheets tangled with the spinnaker pole and several boats paraded by before the mess could be cleared. The rest of the leg south was uneventful and the Equalizer went up smoothly for the second northbound leg. All was not well on the take-down, however, as we did a bit of “shrimping” before the nylon monster was fully onboard.

Sunglasses required heading west into the sun.

The final two legs went just fine, thankfully, Full Moon finishing approximately tenth even with the struggles. Meanwhile, it was yet another sunny Tuesday evening with wind – it was great to be sailing on the lake!

Le French Cabin Man takes beverage orders...