Beads, Not Boobs

Full Moon crew Michael “Sweet” Medina, Marcelle “Screen Time” van Houten, Doug “Halyards” Schoemaker, Chad “Bike Builder” Harnish, and skipper John “Hard To Pass” Mengedoht got a better start for the Mardi Gras Duck Dodge but still wasn’t quite up with the leaders at the favored end of the line. I’d blame the wind angle (port tack has been necessary to cross the starting line for all three races thus far) but it’s really on the skipper not wanting to risk contact.

Marcelle, Doug, John, and Chad enjoying another awesome evening.

The wind was better toward the middle of the lake and Full Moon soon tacked out, leaving a beautiful big Tartan 3800 well behind (size is good, mass not so much). The next tack was right on the layline for the Freeway buoy. Full Moon then opted to keep going toward Gasworks before tacking west. A few more tacks were necessary to reach the Aurora buoy but a nice approach on starboard left ample time to set up the spinnaker, which then went up very smoothly.

Michael supervises as John stares at the Equalizer.

At that point, Full Moon should have been well ahead of the single-handed Ranger 22 Anakena but we were astounded to watch as the skipper abandoned the tiller to hoist a spinnaker! Way to go, dude! Fortunately, the Equalizer performed its usual magic and Full Moon quickly pulled ahead and proceeded to pass quite a few boats on the way to the AGC buoy, including a big Catalina 38 Tranquilitee (their spelling, not mine!).

Full Moon is on the left, the crew enjoying the post-race sunset.

The spinnaker drop went smoothly and it was on to the final upwind leg, hoping to keep ahead of Tranquilitee and maybe catch the relatively large Krystal. We achieved the first goal, not the second, but also had to contend with a hard-charging J22 coming up from behind. Full Moon doesn’t seem her normal self, upwind on port tack, but we still prevailed over the J-Boat. Whew!