Lost Decade

Full Moon chases Scat and Runaway just before tacking to cross the start line.

Full Moon crew Randy “Bow Rider” Olsen, Amy “Clockwise” Stokes, Doug “Backup” Schoemaker, Jeffrey “Buried Alive” Schoemaker, Daniel “Count to 12” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Buoy Finder” Mengedoht managed an excellent start for the Pick a Decade Duck Dodge, followed by a straight shot upwind to the Freeway buoy. Only two tacks were needed to reach the Aurora buoy where the Equalizer was quickly hoisted. Romping downwind, Full Moon passed a few boats and even managed to get by speedy Scat and a Seascape 27 before a late but clean drop at the AGC buoy.

The Schoemaker boys like this stuff!

Scat returned the favor on the long upwind leg, along with a red Olson 30, the Seascape 27, and the Norlin 34 Runaway (all fast boats), but Full Moon was still in the top 10 boats rounding the Freeway buoy for the second lap. The leg to the Aurora buoy looked to be a repeat of the first lap but there proved to be a lot of slow-moving third start boats gathering at the buoy and Full Moon had to take a wide line to get around them all. Not so for the yellow Moore 24 Amarillo coming in on port tack (!), which shot into a narrow gap between big boats and then tacked right at the buoy.

Daniel pulls the halyards, grinds the sheet winches, and repacks the chute. What a guy!

This time, Scat was too far ahead to catch downwind (they had rounded the Aurora buoy before the converging mass of slow boats arrived) but Full Moon did pass the Olson 30, which was not flying a spinnaker. Unfortunately, something went wrong during the spinnaker take-down, resulting in the pole fouling the jib sheets for the final leg. The Olson 30 was then able to get past as we approached the finish line. Still, Full Moon hung in there with many theoretically faster boats plus it was a perfect sailing evening with solid breeze, sunny and fairly warm!

Randy enjoys the peace and quiet on the bow. Until it's time to drop that chute!