So as some of you know the six of us are currently stuck in Berkeley California... Yes the six of us! Let me explain, this story begins at 1 in the morning about 50 miles off the coast of Eureka, CA. Tom and Cliff were up together on watch when Tom noticed the boom looked more like a V than it should so he sent Jenna to wake me (Koelby) up and I could not believe my ears. I figured she must be mistaken. There is no way we broke our boom I thought. As I scrambled to get dressed and head topside I could feel the boat bobbing around erratically and realized we must no longer be making head way. When I got topside we made the decision to drop the main sail and remove the boom from the mast. By about two in the morning we had everything down and in some sort of order but now had to decide what the game plan would be from here. We motored for 30 hours and arrived at Pier 39 in San Francisco the morning of the 19th. We were met by Ian Steele, he would be replacing jessica's grandfather cliff... well nobody can replace cliff but he would try to fill his shoes. (I know that only makes five but I'm getting there) we showed him the broken boom and explained what happened. His Mother Ellen was great and loved the boat. We appreciate her letting us take her baby boy. The America's Cup race was getting ready to begin so we headed over to watch as we worked on finding a way to get the boom fixed. I could write 6 pages about everything we went through finding a new boom so ill paraphrase. we had quotes as high as $7500 some people said they could fix it some people said we shouldn't trust it so after a million phone calls (all by Tom by the way) we settled on a boom that was made for a similar boat, but never used. The alterations to make it fit our boat should be done in about 10 days so thats good. Now back to this sixth crew member. I guess I will start on the 23rd of this month when a guy and a girl came to the boat and knocked on the window. They introduced themselves and explained that the girl (We will call her Sally) had just finished a summer job and wanted to travel and were wondering if it was ok if she came with us. The five of us talked about it and decided what the hell lets invite her over for dinner and see what she is all about. We made pizza for dinner and mixed up some gin and tonics (a boat favorite) as we talked with Sally. She seemed really nice and down to earth and I thought this just might work out. She would have to share a room with Ian but trust me he didn't mind. As the night went on the gin flowed, Sally's chances of coming with us quickly faded. After just a couple hours she could no longer balance her head on her neck and her favorite words became F you! The odd part about this is that none of us were even feeling it, just a calm relaxing night. Long story short we decided she was a liability and have not returned her phone calls since. So at this point we are still five strong. We moved the boat over to berkeley where we would do some minor repairs on the boat while we wait for the new boom. Tom and I had an old navy friend (Matt) currently living in Berkeley and going to school. We gave Matt a call to see if he wanted to check out the boat and grab a drink. Matt loved the boat instantly and as the night and the drinks carried on the talk of him coming with us started. My phone rang about ten o'clock the next morning and it was Matt, he explained how he had already withdrawn from all of his classes and got out of his lease so he could come with us. I was instantly surprised and excited as was the rest of the crew when I told them. So Ian has a roommate and a partner to chase girls with and we will be moving all of his stuff to a storage unit on the 30th. Thats where we are now. I'll keep you updated as things progress.-Koelby
