Mike finally got it right! We awoke to a beautiful sunny day, Nikki and Bud really lucked out!
The morning was spent “monkey shining” (i.e. making stuff look pretty for the short term) in anticipation of the wedding and marlinspike party! We had a couple of man overboard and fire drills and at 12 we were released to get ready for the wedding,… a lot of people had been to the dollar store to stock up on bizarre accessories or clothing and some had even gone to the second hand store to butcher someone else’s cast-offs. There were no prizes for best costume, but the tin-foil skirt, the felt jacket held together by duct tape and the ever-eccentrically-dressed Niko’s pink sleeveless grandma’s jacket were definitely in the running. My uniform was slightly less extravagant with my favourite (and only) Hawaiian shirt, a duct-tape bow-tie and musto heavy weather cap,.. almost everyone made an effort and I have never been to a wedding like it!
In contrast to the rest of the invitees the captain was dressed in his finest captain’s garb, and really looked the part, his speech was perfectly delivered and there were very few dry eyes as Buddy and Nikki exchanged the vows they had prepared. Ryan had managed to link up to a webcam and streamed the whole event live to the world! I thank god that the rest of the day wasn’t streamed live to the rest of the world as there are certain hazy parts, but all in all everyone had a great time. Directly after the ceremony there was a Marlinspike party on board which included drinking and dancing, this then moved to the Grand Banker pub which included drinking and chatting, then as the evening closed in we moved to the dory shop where we continued to drink (as you can see, drinking was a pretty important element of the day!), dance and chat until the early hours. I lost my camera for the last chunk of the evening and the next day it was returned to me with some unexpected shots of someone who had worn a kilt to the wedding,.. I don’t think I need to go into any further detail, but suffice to say, he was wearing it in the correct manner and the photos were deleted pretty rapidly!
Andrew Younghusband was also invited to the wedding, if you have been reading this since the first day you’ll know that his experiences on the Tall Ship Chronicles were the reason I am here now! Really nice guy who proceeded to reach a level of inebriation that surpassed even my own,.. and then promptly fell asleep, in the middle of the dory shop dancefloor! What a day!!!! J
Looks amazing Liam. Wish I could be there. Well sort of- I get sea sick easily. I know, ridiculous for a sailor!
Ariane