Just recently, I received an email from Roz back at Queen City Yacht Club, enquiring about "The Spam". She was endeavouring to track it down, and the trail had led to 'Silverheels III". Yes, we had "The Spam". This is not a new story, but since the email dredged up nostalgia, and possibly a touch of nausea, Ken and I figured that we would resurrect the story. It is moderately interesting, and there are a few more twists to it now, plus it allows a little shameless name dropping. I don't have 100% of the information, so I am sticking with the facts that I know.

"The Spam" started as a joke. One cruising couple who had done the Two Year Loop (left QCYC for the Caribbean to return within 2 years) had a can of Spam left from provisioning for their trip. Friends of theirs, who were also QCYC members, were getting ready to take a boat south, and the can of Spam was handed on as "Emergency Provisions". It was dated 1991 or 2 (I confess I haven't looked at it very recently) and sent south. No surprise, the can made it back from its' southern trip, and was handed on to the next southbound QCYC boat.

If you have read "An Embarassment of Mangoes" by Ann Vanderhoof, you know of the can of Spam that I am talking about. This is the same can that Ann and Steve took on their Two Year Loop back in the mid 90's. From what I recall from the last time I read the book, Ann didn't write about it with love. I believe that 'Receta' was the third boat to ferry this chunk of processed (meat/food/questionable matter?) but I am not positive, however the timing seems about right.

This now possible liability was passed on to more southbound cruisers. We don't know who the "lucky" recipients were after 'Receta' offloaded it, but eventually we received it at our going away party from Dave and Kim on 'Amanzi' after their Loop. The can has made it as far as Bermuda (and a touch beyond) and to the Western Caribbean on its' journeys. We know 'Golden Eye' and 'Bretanha' had it, but not the details.

We have it in our "nasty locker" with the other toxic, possibly noxious items, like epoxy and paint. The Spam is double bagged in Ziploc, as one can never be too safe. Occasionally it gets into daylight when I am looking for something else, and I check the can for structural integrity. It then gets reburied, kind of like radioactive waste.

We have mentioned this Spam to a few people, and the mixed reactions of curiousity, laughter, and possibly a tinge of concern makes for interesting conversation. When we first met up with Ann and Steve our first year in the Caribbean, I mentioned the Spam to Ann, and she almost fell off the coaming. She blogged about it, maybe as a form of Exorcism to get the thought out of her head (check the sidebar for the link).

We are no longer members of Queen City Yacht Club. Not that we don't like the club, but we have no intentions of taking the boat back there, and there didn't seem to be a point in maintaining a membership in a place we would see only very sporadically. So now we have a conundrum - we have a QCYC "heirloom" and the (questionable) stuff of legend on board our boat. We have tried to give it to Ann and Steve to take back, but Ann won't allow it near her boat. Patrick and Diane on 'Resolute' don't want to accept it, either. Shipping it back seems like bad karma, as we feel there should be some kind of handing off ceremony, and I question if any reputable courier or postal service would touch it; that is the official reason we haven't dumped it in one of their cockpits, but really, we think they will dump it back in ours and then leave the anchorage.

So, we have a 21 year old can of Spam, with a long and interesting history, languishing in the bilge, collecting more sea miles. However, with our uncertain length of time to cruise, and our remote affiliation with QCYC now, we aren't sure where it is going to lead.