Rockin' The Pink

Full Moon crosses the start line near the front of the pack.

Full Moon crew Michael “Left” Medina, Daniel “Right” Mengedoht, Marcelle “Great Grapes” van Houten, Anne “Layers” Gustavson, and skipper John “Shifty” Mengedoht enjoyed a decent start in extremely light wind for the Pink Boat Duck Dodge. Staying to windward of most boats helped on the first leg and Full Moon rounded the Freeway buoy in first place, already mixing it up with boats from earlier starts.

Full Moon on the first leg. Lots of boats behind!

The Aurora buoy was set far to the west, making for a long and painful leg as the wind remained light to nonexistent. Things were not improved when the old ferry/party boat Trek opted to cruise through the fleet hailing loudly about boats in “the shipping lanes” needing to get out of the way. Unlike Puget Sound, there are no shipping lanes on Lake Union, and it isn’t like sailboats ghosting along in light wind can suddenly scamper out of the way. Meanwhile, Trek is reasonably maneuverable, clearly saw the sailboats ahead, and could have picked a course around the sailboats to the north instead of through them.

Full Moon about to round the Freeway buoy with lots of second start boats.

Anyway, once around the Aurora buoy, the Equalizer was set for the long reaching leg southward. Amazingly, the wind was sufficient to keep the nylon monster flying. After a clean drop at the AGC, it was on to the final upwind leg in gathering darkness. Approaching the finish line, the Race Committee announced a 9 PM time limit. With some vigorous kinetics (and some minor clock fudging by the Committee), Full Moon was awarded the Gold Duck for first place.

Adding the Gold Duck sticker to the mast in the dark.