The Wind Gods Are Crazy!

Full Moon crew Michael “Nimble” Medina, Ian “Ballast” Mengedoht, Daniel “Temporary Skipper” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Not Again!” Mengedoht approached the starting line for the LED Night Duck Dodge on port tack, hoping for a hole, but faced a literal wall of starboard tack boats. When finally able to tack, a slow-moving boat blocked our path and Full Moon barely squeaked by the Committee Boat to cross the line.

The standard advice upwind is to tack on a header but it seemed like every tack resulted in a new header due to very shift breeze and progress to the AGC buoy was painful. A final tack to the buoy looked like a sure bet but resulted in just barely getting past without hitting the buoy.

It was a nearly full moon, which oddly doesn't ever seem to translate to racing success!

Once around, the anticipated southwest wind had clocked to the southeast. A delay in switching the oversized “turbo” spinnaker pole to the opposite side was just in time for the wind to clock back to the southwest. Flip the pole again! Finally, it was time to hoist the Equalizer, which flew between a beam reach and sailing by the lee (pole on the “wrong” side)! At least the drop was fairly tidy at the Freeway buoy.

Just past sunset over the Aurora Bridge.

The next leg was a straight shot to the Aurora buoy. Unfortunately, tacking around the buoy proved the spinnaker pole was trapped in the jib sheets, which took a few minutes to clear. The final leg was upwind in a very shifty breeze, once again resulting in tacking at precisely the wrong times. Full Moon finally made it across the line, not last but definitely not among the leaders. Time for beer!!

Good Until It Wasn't

The Skipper’s Choice Duck Dodge was highly unusual with a course utilizing only the Aurora and AGC buoys, a starting buoy consisting of two fenders with a red life jacket, and a starting line that, for once, encouraged a starboard tack start. Full Moon crew Randy “Stripes” Olsen, Robert “Warm Beer” Leykam, Lucienne “Only Boat I’ve Been On” Grace, Daniel “Rocker” Mengedoht, and skipper John “It’s The Duck Dodge” Mengedoht managed a decent start and proceeded nearly to the Westlake shore before tacking north. Unfortunately, boats that headed north earlier appeared to have enjoyed better wind, leaving Full Moon well behind the leaders.

Daniel surveys the fleet during the pre-start action.

Once around the Aurora buoy, the Equalizer was launched but Full Moon was stuck between two boats, and it took a while to break clear. Full Moon then spent much of the long south-bound leg running parallel with Necessary Evil (Catalina 30) while catching and passing several other boats that were closer to shore. Then the wind died, leaving a bunch of boats drifting slowly toward the buoy. As it often does, the wind began to fill in from behind and some of the boats that had been passed were able to return the favor, though all were moving very slowly.

After finally rounding the AGC buoy in a tight cluster, Full Moon wallowed with little progress, stuck with bigger boats on both sides with next to no wind. Given lateness of the evening (it gets dark WAY too soon!), the skipper decided to allow “kinetics” (rocking the boat and sculling the rudder) to propel the boat forward. This is kind of fun – and surprisingly effective – though not particularly good for the sails. Some nearby boats loudly took exception to our aerobic dance moves. Apparently, some people take the Duck Dodge a little too seriously…

It gets dark early these days...

Full Moon eventually crossed the finish line (we like to “finish” even if we have to motor!), still clearly using kinetics to move forward, just behind the top finishers. It would have been interesting if the Race Committee had awarded a duck to Full Moon. It clearly wouldn’t have been fair to the sailors patiently relying on wind alone but, there was that race two years ago… (See “Rockin’ The Pink from August 7, 2024.)

Pirate Night

Full Moon has an excellent start. Boats ahead in this photo were over early.

Full Moon crew Randy “Stripes” Olsen, Troy “Grog” Charlesworth, Kaylee “Hand Sani” Charlesworth, Daniel “Knotty” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Graybeard” Mengedoht managed an excellent start for the Pirate Night Duck Dodge after successfully pushing a windward boat up and out of the way. Rival Necessary Evil (Catalina 30) was behind but to windward and soon pulled ahead. (Size sometimes matters…) A few others managed to overtake Full Moon to windward on the first leg. (Something is slowing Full Moon on upwind legs, probably the skipper…)

Kaylee gets into trimming the jib.

The second leg to the Aurora buoy featured a battle with Tailwind (Capri 25), Full Moon coming out ahead via higher pointing and well-timed tacking. After rounding, the Equalizer was soon launched but heading toward the middle of the lake failed to provide the usual advantage. It did allow Full Moon to gain a bit on the leaders and get past or hold off some others. Full Moon delayed dropping the spinnaker to the last second, creating the opportunity to round the AGC buoy just in front of Oh J, a fast J24.

Randy takes a selfie with the pirate crew.

The final leg saw no changes, Full Moon crossing the line in fifth place, not bad for a relatively breezy night. The sun dips down a little too early these days but it was warm, sunny, and great to be out enjoying the lake.

Smoke On The Water

Not great for breathing.

With a few of the crew rightly concerned about smoke from wildfires (Air Quality Index well into the "orange" range), Full Moon skipped the Summerween Duck Dodge. We'll be back next week for Pirate Night!