Neptune’s Poet Laureates – by All of Us

We left Madagascar at the same time as Ann and Barry on Cats Paw IV and on passage we communicated with them via HF radio twice a day.  These communications were undertaken at scheduled times on scheduled frequencies – in yachtee lingo referred to as ‘scheds’.  At each sched we would exchange position reports and weather information – all a bit boring really.

To liven up these radio communications and make the passage more interesting, Ann suggested we share the writing of limericks according to a specific sequence.  She started it off on the afternoon of our departure by giving us the first line of ‘our’ limerick, i.e.

“There was a sailing boat from Hobart”

On the next morning’s sched we were to give her the second line (plus the first line of ‘her’ limerick).  That afternoon she was to give us our third and fourth lines, while on the following morning we were to supply our last line.  In this way we usually had two limericks on the boil at any one time, one about us and one about them.

We had lots of laughs and ended up with several limericks each. Below are ours, assembled as an entire poem:

Aboard the Good Ship Mojombo

There was a sailing boat from Hobart
Whose little red boat, sadly, was no dart
The four sailors craved speed
And so great was their need
They traded their boat for a gocart




Pastis has become Mojombos favourite to drink
Saluting the French their glasses go clink
The Aussie Cap’n and his lovely 1st Mate
Consume it at an astonishing rate
But I like it slow, murmurs the Mate with a wink.
 





On the gocart the mornings mean school
Headmistress Vicki has only one golden rule
When Zeke and Nina try to bend
Off to the bilges the Captain will send
But at least the campus has a swimming pool





Zeke has a fondness for chocolate pudding and pie
But slimey oysters, spicey curry, even snails he’ll try
He swims, he farts and he draws maps of a prison
I imagine one day he’ll understand nuclear fission
But the state of his cabin makes his parents sigh
 




Nina the youngest has an eagle-eye
And for sniffing out cake, she’ll with a beagle vie
There hasn’t been a kingfisher that’s escaped her sight yet
She’ll have a career in the sciences I’ll bet
While licking cookie crumbs clean t’make a seagull cry.






Limericks!  What a fun idea, thanks Ann!

Ann getting legless in Sri Lanka
if you want to see their limericks click on this link

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