SailBlog - Day 7 - The Trans-Atlantic Iguana

Mark A
30/11/2008, North Atlantic Ocean, North of Cape Verdes

Crossing the Atlantic with the ARC is not limited to aging groups of mates like us. There are whole families that do it with young children (I believe there were more than 20 this year). The ARC office lays on a programme of activities for the children alongside everything else and one of these is a competition to earn the privilege of taking ‘Eddie the Iguana’ on his annual Atlantic crossing with the ARC. All they have to do is send a picture, story or poem about Eddie and the judges would do the rest. We heard there was a shortage of entries this year so took the liberty of making our own submission with a little poem dedicated to one of our colleagues on the pontoon. For some reason they were reluctant to let Eddie come with us.

Now Edward was an Iggy, an Iggy that loved to sail

He's been across the oceans in wind and rain and hail

And now in Gran Canaria, another trip he planned

To sail to St Lucia and lie in Caribbean sands

One day in a dodgy nightclub he met a Captain John

Who skippered a boat called 'Ula', and Ed could come along

Captain John assured him it was the friendliest of crews

'Just bring your Iggy lifejacket - and lots and lots of booze!'

Now Ula was a lovely boat, the shiniest in the fleet

It had all the gadgets you could want but was lacking one thing - meat

Captain John was dark of heart and had an evil plan

He'd been to town that very day and bought a brand new pan

And so one dark and stormy night the crew sat down to eat

And Eddie sat there waiting for the latest culinary treat

His Iggy stomach rumbled in eager expectation

Of food the cook had now prepared for Edward's delectation

And Edward sat across the table looking at the crew

But when he asked what dinner was, the crew replied 'it's you!'

So Eddie's now in Iggy heaven - he's well and truly dead

While meanwhile down on Ula, the crew are well and truly fed

And Captain John is smiling at his evil misadventures

As he uses Eddie's rib bones to clean the meat from out his dentures