Kate (11 page)

Unlike William, Kate didn't take part in the sea kayaking or tracking the endangered huemul deer. Instead, she conducted a marine survey on the south coast with British and Chilean scientists. An adept amateur sailor, she quickly mastered how to use the small, uncomfortable—but powerful—inflatable Zodiac boats to navigate the choppy, freezing waters in order to survey the flora and the fauna of the inlets. There were no sanitary facilities, and Kate washed in a bucket of cold water and survived off ration packs. Robin Vincent Smith, the assistant logistics manager on the trip, recalled how competent Kate was despite the difficult conditions. She knew how to pitch a tent and make a campfire and was able to cope with walking long distances. “It was cold and wet and we were sleeping in tents on the beach. We would get up very early in the morning and make porridge on a campfire, then get into the Zodiacs and drive out to the fjords in Puerto Yungay. We'd go quite a distance and they weren't the easiest boats to drive or particularly easy places to reach, but I remember Catherine and her group learned to navigate the boats quickly. We were in the middle of nowhere in very extreme conditions. It was one of the hardest expeditions I have done; even lighting
campfires was hard work because it was so wet and damp. The waters were choppy, and we used to wear oilskins and rubber suits because the regular hiking clothes were just not good enough to keep us warm and dry.”

Although some of the volunteers protested and even broke down, Kate never complained, even when she had gone without a hot shower for weeks on end. “She was mature enough to cope with the experience. You could just tell that she was very with it,” said Mr. Sutherland. Like William, she spent her free time reading, listening to music in her tent, and writing letters home. She struck up friendships, and according to Rachel Humphreys, an interpreter on the trip, she was popular with the boys: “She had a certain presence. She was a very mature girl, attractive and popular, particularly with the boys. But she was always in control of herself and impeccably behaved.”

Understandably, the prince was a topic of much interest, having left Chile only a few weeks before the new recruits arrived. But though some were curious about his time in Chile, Kate didn't ask about the prince at all. “People were very respectful of William and the fact that he wanted the trip to be private,” said Mr. Sutherland. “It was the only time he was going to have a normal experience, and there was a feeling among the volunteers that they weren't going to talk about it. William loved being in Chile, he loved the fact that it was so remote and cut off. He merged into the masses and was part of the team.”

For Kate, the highlight of the trip was teaching Chilean children at a local primary school once a week in the village of Tortel, where, like William, she was involved in building one of two fire stations. Despite not speaking Spanish, Kate found other ways to communicate with the children, drawing them
pictures and acting things out. “Kate loved it and made it a lot of fun,” recalled Mr. Sutherland. “She was very patient in the classroom, and she had a very easygoing approach. . . . She also loved the final part of her tour, trekking in the Patagonia hills. She seemed to really enjoy the solitude and being out in the wilderness. That was a parallel between her and William. Actually I think they are both very similar. They are reserved but in a positive way and very thoughtful. You can see why they work so well together.”

When she returned home at the end of March, Kate was tinged with sadness that the adventure was over. It had been a long, tough but rewarding ten months, but now she had to settle back into “real” life. She had helped contribute to the cost of the trip, so with her savings account somewhat depleted, she needed to secure a summer job. Although her parents were generous and Kate never wanted for anything, money wasn't just handed out and Kate knew that she was expected to earn her keep. Her father suggested she apply for a job working at Ocean Village Marina in Southampton, where he had heard there were positions for deckhands on board Challenger boats. Despite the fact that Kate's sailing experience only extended to family holidays in Norfolk and, once they had come into money, Barbados, she loved being out at sea, and according to Sir Chay Blyth, the former round-the-world yachtsman and then–managing director of the hospitality business, Kate got a job as a deckhand from June until the end of the summer. “Kate applied the usual way and would have submitted her CV and been interviewed, although she would likely have come via a recommendation.”

During the warm summer of 2001, while William was on a four-month work placement at the Lewa Downs conservation
park in Kenya, Kate was causing something of a stir in sunny Southampton. Working for the BT Global Challenge Yacht, where Princess Anne is the patron and the famous sailor Ellen MacArthur came up through the ranks, was prestigious. Kate was privileged to be working with seasoned professionals, several of whom had sailed around the world, and fortunate to be in the company of many students, who, like her, had taken summer jobs ahead of their fall university studies. Each morning and evening, she was required to wash down decks, and in no time at all, she had amassed an army of male admirers, due to her habit of hosing down the yacht wearing the briefest pair of shorts. With her long, tanned legs and tumbling brown hair, Kate stood out and was so eye-catching she would often bring the parking lot to a standstill as visitors admired her statuesque form. “Kate had a reputation for being very pretty and for wearing very short shorts, and she had a great set of pins,” joked Sir Chay. “She was singled out for being a stunning girl, and she was a favorite with the crew, which was mostly male.”

Kate spent four months working on different Challengers, but most of the time she was onboard the seventy-two-foot-long
Isle of Man
, earning $75 a day. The hours were long—she was on the deck at 7:00
A.M
. and never finished before 6:00
P.M
. She took her meals on the boat and slept in a sparse and very small cabin in a bunk bed she shared with a fellow female deckhand. Kate was under the joint command of South African–born skipper Cal Tomlinson and his British counterpart, David Melville. The boats were hired out by businesses eager to treat their clients to a day of luxurious hospitality, culminating in an afternoon racing on the Solent, the strait that separates the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England. As well as washing the decks, Kate was expected to
help load the 660-pound catering boxes on board and wash and pack away the sails at the end of the day. “It was back-breaking work,” said Mr. Tomlinson. “Kate mucked in and was very professional. She fitted right in, although she did stand out for being so pretty. She spoke well, she was very attractive, and she had an air about her. She was competent and confident but very unassuming. She was polite and respectful to whoever was in charge of her and neat as a pin. She never wore any makeup; she was naturally beautiful.”

Greeting the guests as they came on board, Kate was a very popular hostess. After instructing them to take off their shoes, she showed them through to the main deck, where they were offered a glass of champagne before lunch. Before they set sail, Kate was sometimes required to carry out an onboard safety demonstration. It was something her mother used to enjoy doing when she worked as a flight attendant, and Kate laughed at the fact that she was now doing the same thing. She didn't see the funny side, however, when some of the crew played a practical joke on her. “When she pulled the toggle, the thing inflated and a load of condoms fell out,” recalled Mr. Tomlinson, who witnessed the moment. “She was mortified and very embarrassed. She took it more seriously than the others might have, but she wasn't thrown off her stride. She was angry at first, but she settled down, and I don't remember her ever getting her own back.”

The Challenger crews were the life and soul of Ocean Village, and after work they socialized in Southampton, congregating at Los Marinos, a lively late-night bar at the local cineplex. Kate rarely went out, but when she did, she would often stay on the periphery. “Ours wasn't a party boat and Kate wasn't out partying every night,” said First Mate Paul
Horsford. “She wasn't aloof, but she wasn't part of the 24/7 Ocean Village lifestyle. I don't remember her drinking at all. She was always very professional and very private, and very careful with what she said. We got along very well and spoke about most things. I was a lot older than her and her skipper, so we mostly talked about sailing.”

Kate loved being on the open water, and as an amateur sailor she was eager to learn more. Over the course of the summer, she learned how to heave a line, throwing a long thick rope to a neighboring yacht for hours. Astonished by how far it could be thrown out to sea, she loved competing against the others to see who could heave the farthest. “She was keen to hone her big-boat skills and develop herself as a sailor,” said Mr. Tomlinson. “She made no bones about that. She was a naturally competent person and you could tell she had been sailing before. She was no fool . . . and had a good head on her shoulders. She was keen to learn and she had the right attitude.”

Although she didn't integrate much with her colleagues socially, Kate did strike up a friendship with a fellow deckhand named Ian Henry, who escorted her on the rare occasions she did go out. “He thought he was in with a chance. He was a nice, good-looking guy and he had his own car, which was a rarity for a crew member,” recalled one of Kate's team. “He was sweet on Kate, but somebody was delegated to tell him to back off because she wasn't interested. As far as I know she wasn't seeing anyone.” Mr. Henry never spoke about the alleged romance to the press, insisting he and Kate had only ever been “very good friends.”

With university just weeks away, the deckhands joked with Kate, asking if she planned to make a beeline for Prince
William. “Towards the end of the season, the onboard conversations turned to the future, and she told us she was going to St. Andrews,” said Mr. Tomlinson. “We all knew William was going there, and we asked if she would be seeing him. She told us she was going to be in the same hall as him and when some of the crew teased her and said, ‘Are you going to go for it?' she just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. That was the last that was said about it. We had no idea at the time we were looking at the future Queen of England.”

Although Kate gave nothing away to her colleagues, she was more candid with Mr. Horsford, who had become avuncular during their time together.

“We spoke about Prince William,” Mr. Horsford revealed. “I said, ‘Obviously you might meet him,' and she said, ‘I've already met him once or twice before.'” The admission surprised Mr. Horsford. He and Kate had worked together all summer, and although she had talked about going to St. Andrews, she had never mentioned knowing William until then. Bragging wasn't her style, and she was intuitive enough to realize that if she wanted to stay friends with the prince, discretion was the way forward. It was exactly the foresight that ensured that when they did next meet at St. Salvator's Hall, William trusted her from the start.

CHAPTER 5

An “Undie” Graduate at St. Andrews

S
TANDING AMID
the throng of excited freshers in Younger Hall, the very place she would eventually stand in her graduation ceremony, Kate listened as Brian Lang, the principal and vice chancellor of St. Andrews University, delivered his welcoming address.

After telling his nervous students that they would need to work hard and behave themselves, his tone softened: “And if you do work hard,” he said, “you will enjoy a good social life here.” He paused. “In fact, look around you. You could, at this very moment, be looking at your future spouse.” The undergraduates glanced around and exchanged shy smiles. Even if they weren't looking at their future husbands and wives, these would likely be their friends for life.

It was early September, the weather was still mild, and Kate and her fellow undergraduates planned to make the most of
the late summer before the temperature dropped and the small coastal town prepared to shiver through winter. Despite being so exposed to the elements, St. Andrews University is an attractive option for many students—it has an excellent academic reputation and is well known for caring for and nurturing its students. As the town is so remote and relatively small, the university community is well integrated within the town. Along with all freshers, Kate had already signed the Sponsio Academica, an oath of commitment to respect university life, preserve its reputation, and look out for other students. And this year, most unusually, students had also been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement on enrollment. There was already a united feeling of common purpose in the hall, and when Brian Lang ended his talk, as he did each year, by quietly asking the students to respect each other's privacy, there was an added degree of poignancy to his request. Everyone in the hall knew that very soon, their lives would be touched in some way by the arrival of the most famous undergraduate the university had seen in many years.

Like everyone else present, Kate knew that William Wales—as he was to be known—had not yet arrived, having made a decision to join his fellow students after Freshers' Week. The university hierarchy was nervous about the media storm that would greet Prince William's arrival and, together with the Palace, had made an agreement with the press that they could have limited, managed access to the prince if they left him alone for the rest of the time. William himself was well aware that even with this agreement in place, his participation in Freshers' Week might provoke a media frenzy and spoil things for the other students, and anyway, he was doubtful of the benefits of the pre-term partying, later saying, “I thought I
would probably end up in a gutter completely wrecked, and the people I had met that week wouldn't end up being my friends anyway.”