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| The wind was very light at the start and for most of the race. |
The Full Moon
crew jumped ship for the Rum Run, opting to take out Moon Dog, a Ranger 26 from the Carefree Boat Club stationed at
Shilshole. With a tired main and genoa and evidence of “deferred maintenance,”
this was not an ideal choice for racing but it was nice not to have to deal
with the Locks. Speaking of which, the Committee Boat was delayed getting out
to the Sound and the race start was a full hour later than scheduled!
 |
| For whatever reason, Moon Dog was able to keep up with the J24 Cobalt! |
In the very light wind, it was difficult to time the
start. Crew Tina “TKE” Hein, Adam “Hot Wire” Michalak, John “Tack-tician”
Mengedoht, and skipper Michael “Chili” Medina did a decent job getting to the
starboard end of the line until encountering relative giant Twisted Journey barging to windward and
then using their engine to get clear (!). After escaping the wind shadow from Twisted Journey, Moon Dog stayed on starboard tack for a while to clear traffic
before heading west for better breeze. This lead to a protracted game of cat
and mouse with the J24 Cobalt,
crossing tacks multiple times on the painfully long beat to the West Point
buoy.
 |
| At the raft-up at last! Go Cougs! |
Cobalt rounded
the buoy first but didn’t deploy a spinnaker, allowing
Moon Dog to slowly reel them in on the broad reach to Point Monroe.
Moon Dog carried the chute as long as
possible as the wind finally increased, then switched to the genoa for the
finish. Unfortunately, the Committee Boat had abandoned the finish line by the
time we arrived but then it wasn’t like we were going to win any ducks…
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| The full Moon Dog crew enjoys decent wind on the return to Shilshole. |
Moon Dog joined
the raft-up in Port Madison, enjoying some home-made chili, beers, rum – and
even a Martini for Michael. Eventually, it was time to go in order to make it
back to Shilshole before dark. The wind was fresh for the close reach back,
making for a nice sail to end the day.
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| Michael enjoying drinking and driving (it was just coffee...) |
