Race 10 - Day 10
Crew Diary - Nathan Hadfield crew diary
29 March

Something of the supernatural is occurring on Dare To Lead as we seem to have acquired an unexpected additional passenger to our fine crew. Dubbed “The Ghost of the Lazarette”, this eerie spectre occasionally makes themselves known by switching on the light in the lazarette and surprising everyone on deck.

For those unfamiliar with a Clipper 70, the lazarette is a section of the boat at the back that contains the steering mechanism, jerry cans of spare fuel, water and a whole load of other miscellaneous bits and bobs. It is also where we store the ever growing set of bags which contain all of our garbage. It can be a thoroughly unpleasant place so the reason why a paranormal being would want to set up home there remains a mystery.

The other question we ask ourselves is who, or what, this is a ghost of? Perhaps it is the restless soul of one the flying fish that unfortunately meet their demise on deck after an unfortunate after dark journey across the water but I suspect we’ll never know.

Regardless, this spirit seems to be benign in his intentions and its appearance is always welcomed with a smile before one of us reaches inside to turn off the white light that is ruining the helmsman’s night vision and I suspect this will be a constant feature of our remaining journey to Seattle.

P.S. For the record, I am a man of science and reason and am pretty sure that it is just a minor electrical fault.