Weddings

This fall I was lucky enough to go to some really amazing weddings. It all started when my best friend Joanne got engaged and asked me to be her maid of honor. I had taken a job in the Med and wasnt sure how I was going to swing it, but I would. for sure. I almost missed Drake's wedding last year and that was NOT Going to happen again. As it turned out it wasnt an issue at all (see previous blog). Before I left Europe I went to Emma Jane's wedding in London.Emma Jane is Ben's step sister and she married Simon. They live in a beautiful house in Chelsea and drive a range rover and all of that so I knew this wedding was going to be top notch. I was about to leave for Morocco when Ben informed me that this was a hat wedding and did I have a hat. Did I have a hat?? Who, who is backpacking none the less, has a hat lying around? Carol, Emma Jane's mother, was kind enough to bring one down from Wales withthe 3 other hats she was bringing (and she has more than that at home!!). And a good thing too, I would have looked quite silly not having one, as EVERYONE had something on their head!

-note: you can also wear a fascinator which is like a really fancy headband. I would have opted for this, had I known. And I dont know if theyre called fascinators because they fasten or because theyre fascinating.

Anyways. The day started out at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, next to Hyde park. I know because from their top floor balcony you could see the whole thing! The ceremony was beautiful and featured a 15 piece Welsh choir who rang out "all you need is love" by the beatles, on their way out of the church. Afterwards we rode the bus to the hotel reception. Not just any bus, a london bus and a classic one at that! fantastic way to travel 6 blocks!

The reception was fantastic, lots of hat exchanging went on with the boys' top hats, and it was a great party for Emma Jane and Simon.

From London Ben and I flew to NH for Joanne's wedding. The week leading up to the wedding deserves it's own blog so stay tuned. As for Joanne and Mike, What a show! They rented Dexter's Inn in Sunapee which has everything you need for a great party in the mountains. A view of the foliage and ski resort, a huge backyard complete with lawn games and a party barn for after hours!

The girls and I got ready on the day of with Joanne. The sky cleared and the ceremony was beautiful. I cant think of words to say about it but Joanne has scrapbooked the whole thing, so take a look. IT was an amazing weekend and Im so happy for her and mike.

The next weekend I got to go to my cousin Denise's wedding. I was very excited to see my whole family, it had been awhile since we were all together. And very excited to see Denise get married. My aunt Jeanne was so cute! They all looked so happy!

It was a fall wedding in New England and we were on the coast in Maine so what a surprise when it was gray and windy! It didnt rain though, and the ceremony was outside over looking the sea. They kept it short and beautiful. Kate's husband Jeff lead the ceremony and he is getting pretty good at it! Better than a lot of priests Ive seen!

It was a fun dinner and great to see my sisters all at the same table.

The last one for awhile was Jillian's wedding to Nik. I was very worried I wouldnt make it to this one, I had to sail a boat to st Maarten to get on a plane to fly back! We skirted hurricane Tomas and made it down in record time! Just when I thought I was home free I got to the st maarten airport and the power was out! Noone was moving and when they finally did they checked us in by hand! I am keeping my hand written boarding pass for ever! No worries, we only left about an hour late and I had a connection to make in Charlotte. US air did a great job, somehow, and I made it all the way to Boston just about on time! Lucky for me I have some very good friends that still live in boston and Kzak was going to pick me up from the airport. I was very excited to have a sleepover and be "city girls" for the weekend. As I waited for Kzaks Subaru to pull up I saw a silver Audi and thought "wouldnt it be great if Alex AND kzak picked me up?" And THEY DID! We went out for dinner in CHarlestown at a hookah bar. (theres a hookah bar in charlestown, you say? yes there is, its great). From there we made our way to Kzaks temporary home in Malden. Lovely town. We woke up on Saturday VERY EXCITED! We made plans to meet Nell and Kristin for coffee at K's favorite coffee shop. JKLMN was going to be in the same city that day!!! We went back to Brians to get ready and drove to Dorchester to the church. The ceremony was beautiful and the reunion was fantastic! As we walked out of the church we saw 4 TV cameras and thought "Wow, who is this guy shes marrying!?" Apparently the limo the girls were in got HIJACKED! right before they walked into the church! AMAZING! Everyone was ok and the limo was found in Southie later.

Kzak, Dan and I threw the pre party in our hotel room and had a happy little UNH reunion of sailors! Amy, Gus, Michelle, the works! as the night went on things got better and better and we even got to speak to Jill! It was just awesome to be together again. Dancing and singing like we were in a basement somewhere in Durham. Thanks to great friends it was like no time had passed.

So I used to begrudge weddings but after this fall I look forward to them. What a great party, and people dont throw enough parties. It used to be a sort of competition in college, and we should continue the trend. Nothing is better than getting together with some great friends and having a good time.

So if youre getting married I wanna come. But let me know. soon. I have a lot of planning and traveling to do with these things!

Running around England

Wow. It has been awhile!

well to catch you up on the last two years....

Just kidding. I will highlight the highlights though.

Antigua last winter was great. Ben and I had a sweet little cottage and day jobs. It was surreal! After 5 months of "real life" we headed off in separate directions, me to Valencia, Spain, and him back to England. I had a mate job on Crackerjack, an 82' swan that did week charters in Croatia and Montenegro. EVERYONE SHOULD GO THERE. and soon, its going to become one of those places in 10 years. Youll have to check out my facebook albums.

After only a few months out there I got fired, (the theme of the year) and headed to

Cowes for Cowes week. Cowes week is the biggest event in sailing and it is massive! I sailed in a big one design fleet called X-one designs that are fantastic little wooden boats that are very high performance and finely tuned. We raced in a fleet of 88 and ended up 25th, not bad for some first timers! The best part of the week was being Temporary Members for the Royal Yacht Squadron. If races were delayed we'd go have some tea with the ladies who lunch on the lawn. If we finished well we'd sip some champagne with some very proper English gents. It was a hoot. We had 8 full days of racing and I was exhausted by the end but it was fantastic to be sailing in a fleet again with some really solid sailors.

The beer tents were plentiful and may have had something to do with me losing my voice mid week. Trying to communicate tactics by gesturing with two hands that are locked on the sheet is a very interesting task.

Cowes week finished with some awesome fireworks in a very hazy sky. It rained all day! All Id heard about were how good the fireworks were at the end of the week and they were rumors of them canceling! they didnt and we all had a blast! (get it, blast, fireworks, ha.)

All to quickly the racing finished and I was stuck in Europe for a month. "What should I do?" I thought. And answered "buy a tent, rent a car and run road races while exploring England." and I did. I started with training in cowes for the 1/2 marathon that coming sunday. Cowes is and island and like most islands every road goes up hill. (or downhill depending on if youre a runner (pessimist) or driver (optimist). The race itself was described as Undulating. Never a good sign. So on sunday morning I woke up nice and early and it was raining. No surprises there. I grabbed a 20 pound note and headed out the door. I didnt bring anything with me because the race instructions indicated there wasnt any place to leave valuables and I envisioned a tent in the middle of a field and my phone getting soaked.

I hopped on the bus and headed into the center of the island. Got to newport and changed busses to head out to the coast. Even though it was early I was awake enough to notice that my bus fare from cowes to shanklin was more expensive than I anticipated and with the race fee owed when I got there, I might not have enough to get home. "No problem" I told myself, "Im sure someone is heading back this way in a car and I can hitch a ride." I arrived and it was now pouring rain. Lucky us the race head quarters was inside the local Boules club. Because it's england and they have local Boules clubs. So there was actually plenty of dry space to keep valuables. This is important later in the story. I registered and got my number and took a seat to look at the course map. As I sat down I noticed a tall, Meredith tall, girl come in. She was hauling a small suitcase on wheels and I could tell that she didnt have anyone with her. -races, by yourself, can feel very lonely. Everyone has their wife or kid to hold their warm up clothes or help them pin their number on straight. When youre by yourself you stick out like a sore

thumb. And I know something about sore thumbs. But that was before now.

Anyways. Tall girl, whose name was Laura! sat down next to me and we chit chatted about the race. She is a personal trainer to the stars! Or someone rich enough to have a private personal trainer that travels with them to Morocco and the like. And she was on her way north to see the family. We warmed up together and started together and then her long, personal trainer legs, took off.

The race was great. Undulating for sure but relaxed, beautiful, and I got to chat with lots of nice people from london and the lot. I was thought to be from South Africa and Australia, noone ever guesses American. And I finished under my goal time of 2 hours. Laura was at the finish and we said "Good race, nice to meet you, and goodbye." I then began my hunt for a ride home. Funny enough, though they came out to run 12 miles, most people drove from very short distances away and I couldnt seem to find anyone heading all the way back to Cowes. "No problem" I told myself. "Ill get the train to Ryde (thats a ticket to ryde, shes got a ticket to Ryde and she dont care, la la la la) and grab a taxi from there, I can pay them when we get home." So I hopped the train, got to Ryde, saw on the map that at most it was 8 miles home and started walking in order to hail a cab. Forgetting that this was NOT NYC, it was england, and people dont hail a cab, they go to a cab stand. 12 miles and a wrong turn later I turned up at home with sore toes and a very thirsty me! Great race, long walk, nice day.

A few days later I grabbed the morning ferry to Southampton and rented a car. Only noticing as I checked in that my American license had expired in may, I had renewed it like a good kid should, and only had the expired version with me. The lady was nice enough (or foreign and didnt feel like translating the situation) to add a year onto my existing license and let me get the car. Ready to go with my Tom Tom and cell phone I headed north to visit Craig, former Necker chef, instructor of fire poi and good friend from the islands. We toured Oxford, had a scavenger hunt for dark rum, and caught up in his local pub. We parted the next day and I was off to run a 5k in Windsor. I arrived nice and early, walked up to the tent and found out that this was in fact a triathalon and I must have red the directions wrong. bummed but not disc

ouraged I went for my own little run and pitched my tent

in the

big field where noone would notice me. After a good night sleep I woke up, headed into Windsor proper to see the castle, saw the 5k running signs from the night before and realized I was just a few miles away from a good 5k the day before. O well.

I drove west from there, choosing the "avoid main roads" option on Tom Tom. This lead me on some great adventures. Dear Tom Tom, I think you should know that not all roads are paved, wide enough for even the compact car I was driving, or passable by anyone but sheep.

Again I ran some really great races. Trail runs are all the rage in England. So is running very seriously. And not getting tshirts after races.

My second to last race was a 5 miler trail run. I showed up early and found out that this was the first year theyd run the race and it was going to be pretty small. We had almost 30 people run, but 20 of them were kids in the fun run ahead of time! The trail was marked with colored yarn and was pretty confusing to follow. So confusing that, though we were running together, most of us got lost and finished 5 minutes before the decided winners! We missed a lap and about a mile and a half! We all got ribbons anyways and had a great time.

I had found a great campground in close proximity to all the places I wanted to go with hot showers and well that was really all I cared about. Each night after running I'd head back, grab a shower and curl up in my tent to listen to the rain fall. Id fall asleep and dream about getting soaked but my 10 pound tent held it's own and I stayed dry as long as I didnt touch the edges! From my comfortable little camp in the middle of nowhere I headed into the big city of Bath.

Bath, so Jane Austen Iknow, was great. A big town with ancient ruins of Roman Baths and lots of English pubs. I spent the day wandering around the streets before heading just out of town to the horse races!! Id heard it was a very english thing to do and if Eliza D0olittle can do it, so can I. I didnt buy a hat but dressed up and even bought a bet! It was exciting to be in the stands with everyone cheering! Horse racing, like American football however, has a lot of down time and downtime plus downpour = bored laurel. I headed out of town early to head back to my campsite. I had to get up early to drive the 2 hours back towards London for my last race, another 1/2 marathon. Since all the races I'd participated in so far had been pretty small, local affairs I was ready for the same when I pulled into the race site and they directed me 2 miles away to park!! I parked ina field with lots of other cars and began the walk back to the site. This was NOT your local weekend run. Big start line banners and tents set up with over 2000 people running! I had met a woman a couple days before who was a former olympic marathoner. She was in her 50s now and still running. I saw her before the race and wished her luck on her goal time of 95 minutes. (I run it in 2 hours and am estatic!). there are some very serious runners in england. This race was 2 laps through a wooded area, paved trail. quite a bit easier than the last one, and no mud like the rest of the week! I was tired from the previous races and mile 10 started to take its toll. WHen I looked up and saw a woman in front of me wearing a 65+ sticker on her number tag i had a minor break down. I beat her, barely, in the last mile!!

All in all it was a great week. A great way to see England and fun to go camping in the rain!!

I quit my job

At the end of July I decided to leave the Encore crew. It was just time and I had another job lined up. I was supposed to work until September, go to England, and come back and take this other job but I got antsy (surprise, surprise my last name is gaudet). So as of August 1 I was unemployed, uninsured and happier than ever. I immediately drove to Newport and got on a boa racing that weekend. Turns out I stumbled onto a great one and have raced a bunch with them. When I finally made it home to see Mom and Dad (ok I really needed to drop off my stuff, I had a truck full) I got to spend some time in Maine and NH and it was great. I went sailing with half the fam.

I had time to help Missa

move to Balitmore and got to see Julia at the same time. And force her to hang out on a boat.

I even had time to take artsy shots of the Domino sugar factory,

and spend a weekend on Appledore Island (no photos, I thought my camera was gone forever at the bottom of Narragansett, it wasnt, it was in Flurte's tender in Nantucket.)

The next Rima race was in Stamford, the same town that Michelle works in! We raced ~150nm in 30 hours under 8 knots... it was slow to say the least. The more exciting part was the dinghy racing that happened the next day at Michelle's yacht club.

After hanging with M I finally got to fly to England! That other job that I had lined up fell through, and I got to stay quite a bit longer than intended. While I was there I checked London, Cowes, Gibralter, sailing in the med, and Malta off my list of TO DO's.

And I even made it back in time to see

Allison get married and hit up NH for one more hike before taking my new job.

We're based in Antigua and have christmas off.... anyone feel up to traveling with the rest of the world?

Summer of Firsts

This summer has been a summer of firsts.

Living in Long Island is a first. It's not a very interesting town so I bought my first skateboard.

I ride it before the kiddies get out of school because I get embarrassed when the 14 year olds show up at the park and I can hardly ride in a straight line. I try to practice on my way to work but let's face it, skateboarding is something you should start at an early age.

Sometimes the boat goes to Newport on our way to or from the outer islands. Newport is a much nicer town with lots of people in it. There are a lot of boats that summer in Newport thus a lot more "yachties." Sometimes we get together and do things. Most of the time those things have to do with a bar or rum but not always. This time when we rolled into town a few of us had started playing Polo. Since I have never seen a polo match and haven't ridden a horse in about 15 years, I decided I definitely should try it out.

I think I was quite good, all things considered. I hit the ball quite a few times and even scored a goal. (against equally green polo players, though some very good riders!) Polo is very popular in Rhode Island.

July started off with a bang. The whole fam came out to the great city to see a Broadway play (a first). I chose Mamma Mia so as not to be too serious, themed, or controversial. It worked and everyone left laughing.

While in Newport I got invited to sail in the Marblehead to Halifax race.

The boat was a 72' Santa Cruz sled and we went very fast. Ok there was hardly any wind and we went about 5 knots on average, but we did beat all but 4 boats in. This was my first time in Halifax. It really is a nice city, just cold. I recommend that everyone buy a big, warm hat and go there.

The race was hosted by the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. The RNSYS is one of a very few yacht squadrons in the world. The difference between a yacht squadron and a yacht club is that a squadron is sponsored by a royal family and is technically part of a country's armed forces thus it can be called into service in time of war. I dont know if I would want to defend anything with any little sail boat, but who knows.

Kate and I seem to have the same problem keeping a blog regularly but I think it makes it all the more exciting when we do post. I just finished our work log for the boat for the Caribbean season, backlogging daily work done on the boat, and it propelled me to think back over the past few months. 

When I left you last we were on charter in the height of charter season. Since then I've traveled ~10,600 miles (as the crow flies) and acquired 6 new stamps in my passport. We went down island we went up island and I even flew to France. Here are some of the pictures!

We had a charter that went from St. Lucia down to Grenada stopping at St. Vincent, Bequia, The Tobago Cays, Carriacou and stopping at the southern tip of Grenada. The big islands were beautiful, very green and lush and very different from the islands Im used to. 

The Pitons of St. LuciaMarigot Harbor, St. Lucia 

On the way back we stopped in Dominica for a couple hours off. With over 600 rivers it is one of the wettest islands and has amazing rainforests and waterfalls because of it. At the bottom of this valley we jumped off a cliff into a waterfall pool!

I also visited Antibes, France et il ete tres bien, bien sur! 

The Monaco Grand Prix race trackOld cathedral village in Vence. I was reading Ken Follet's The Pillars of the Earth (a really good story that you all should read!)  at the time and it was so exciting to see the construction he was describing right in front of me! Antibes city square with a view of the water. 

News from around town

Though I dont have any photos to post I think it's time I put up a new entry.
My life here in the caribbean has settled into a "routine" (or as much of a routine as one can settle into when they move around and do different things everyday). We have been on charter for most of the month of March and moving the boat between St. Maarten and the VIs inbetween. This leaves little time for wakeboarding, running, or anything fun and personal. I just barely got my brackets into Dad before the games started and, I'm not going to lie, I hardly looked at which teams I was clicking on to win. But so be it, that's the nature of the beast, I can hardly complain. Though our routine is an odd one it's nice to have one and it's very nice to be back in the VI because they're much prettier islands.
Anyways, all this time sitting around waiting for our guests to do something has left me ample time to ponder things like what I'm going to write about in my next blog. I have been making a concerted effort to catch up with and stay in touch with many people from back home. This blog is about is what everyone else is up to.
Let's see....
Congratulations to Lindsay K, my college roomate, for getting into Vet school! Though years of school doesnt sound awesome to me Im wicked proud of the girl!
Speaking of college roomates, Allison D is getting Married this fall! yikes!
Marrige is contagious and Jill P is getting married in the fall as well!
Rachael M is back at the books studying criminal law and living in Brooklyn, I cant wait to catch up in the city this summer!
Amanda A is teaching music to kids in NH, appropriately and happily.
Joanne S got her first offical passport and is coming to visit me in the islands! (She got the passport to go on vacation with Mike in Europe, but those are just details).
On the traveling note, Seth and Will have undertaken their craziest endeavour yet and are calling it the Epic Man http://theepicmancometh.blogspot.com/. And I thought running a marathon was hard.
Michelle just bought a car!
Nell has moved to the big city of Portland to stay while Dustin is in New Zealand learning about grapes.
I guess those are the big Milestones... Noone is pregnant (Jen?) Graduating early? (Kate?) I dont have much going on, looking at taking my AEC (which is the first certification for marine engineering) and upgrading to an unlimited Yacht Master at some point this summer or fall. Trying to fit everything into the 4 weeks of vacation with an actual vacation far away from boats (or at least sailing on boats).
What is everyone else up to?

It seems last time I wrote I was wishing everyone a merry christmas and happy new year, sounds like a good time for an update.
Again, because the days run together on the beach, Ill have to refer to the contents of my overused camera.
After our charter in the BVI we took a half of a day to play and rest in the North Sound, VG. Pretty much top 3 favorite places of mine, if you didnt know. Since Ben came up to visit I had to show off my local knowledge and we drove out to The Grotto to do some cliff jumping. The Grotto is in the rocks on Mountain point and pretty much the coolest spot ever to jump in the water. As you swim up to it it looks like an uninteresting pile of rocks and you have to dive below it or climb over it to get in. Since we forgot masks we chose to climb (and I got a chance to show off my wicked bouldering skills). After a few climbs and jumps we swam back to the dinghy and went to Saba Rock for lunch, YUM!
Sad as it was, we had to start our drive back to St. Maarten that evening and after 11 hours of pounding into the wind and waves we dropped anchor and waited for the morning bridge.
When we got back we found the island to be full of friends. Ben and Dee were off charter and Tony and Nina were getting their decks done and in town for a week or so. First order of operation on any good day off is to steal Knickerbocker's crew tender and go wakeboarding! if I ever figure out how to load videos onto this you'll see how sick I am (well sort of). That photo is of Dee. Since we had such a tough morning we decided to take the rest of the day on the beach.
Im going to jump ahead a couple weekends, there was plenty of working being done during the weeks, I swear, I dont hang out on the beach everyday. I do go wakeboarding pretty much every day after work though, so Ive got that going for me, which is nice.
There is a day off tradition that happens every once in awhile called Rose Lunch. Basically this consists of going to a beach with a restaurant (not hard to find here in tourist country) and ordering a bottle or 3 of the cheaper rose wine. As you can imagine lunch stretches right on to sunset. I was at one of these rose lunches whcn Dad and Mom were visiting Jules in DC. That's me talking to Dad. After that we were back on charter and I left my camera in my room. Tune in next time for Meredith's surprise birthday!