Aurora Triangle

Daniel mans the "pit."

Full Moon crew Randy “Stripes” Olsen, Daniel “Tidy Foredeck” Mengedoht, Leslie “Rookie Again” Synnestvedt, Lilian “ASA 101” Ha, and skipper John “Hard To Pass” Mengedoht had to make a last minute maneuver to get by a J22 that wasn’t even in our start, getting away about ninth for the Barbie Night Duck Dodge. Racing in second start once again, there were several large boats, but Full Moon managed to peel off one of them on the first leg by using a drifting pontoon boat as a screen.

Randy checks the rigging.

Higher pointing and judicious tacks kept Full Moon in front of Necessary Evil (Catalina 30) at the Freeway buoy and held them off to the Aurora buoy in the NE breeze. Unfortunately, the breeze faded to zero, resulting in a large cluster of boats struggling to get around the buoy. This also created an opportunity for third-start boats to gain from behind. Once around, the mighty Equalizer was hoisted but it took a while for the breeze to build back.

Leslie takes a selfie.

Once moving, Full Moon pulled away from several boats, including Necessary Evil, eventually ending up parallel with 40-foot Thundorca to windward. Mouse (J30) then tried to sneak between from behind, but Full Moon wasn’t about to allow an overtake to windward! Unfortunately, Mouse was able to zip behind and around Full Moon to leeward and create a Full Moon sandwich. Meanwhile Makima (Thunderbird) from third start (!) got past all of us to windward.

Lilian enjoys a quieter moment.

The wind faded again on approach to the AGC buoy, leading to another cluster of boats squeezing together. As boats “pinwheeled” around the buoy, an opening was created for Full Moon to go around inside. The final leg was straightforward. In the end, Full Moon was about ninth with Necessary Evil and Mouse behind.

Rampage scores the Black Duck.