Ocean stories on the Eendracht: cook’s assistant Jacqueline

Dieuwke de Jong is a photographer and lawyer. For Zeilhelden, she sailed along as a photographer on the Eendracht. During an Atlantic crossing, she portrayed life on board. This time: chef’s assistant Jacqueline.

Name: Jacqueline
Function: cook’s assistant
Age: 59
How long with the Eendracht: since 2021

‘I started sailing because of my daughter. My daughter joined a youth voyage on the Eendracht once when she was about 18 years old. Then she was asked to become quartermaster and eventually she became bosun. I then joined her for a weekend once. I really enjoyed that and later on I went along as a trainee. Then I started working as a cook’s assistant. I was already cooking for big events in scouting and love cooking. My daughter no longer sails by now, I actually took over from her.’

Challenging

‘Cooking on board is quite challenging. I wouldn’t want to be responsible on my own. You have many more challenges than ashore. You cook from someone else’s order list, you miss all sorts of things on board. For instance, we now have no cauliflower, no broccoli and we ran out of bananas pretty quickly too. You have to make do with what you have, you can’t just go to the wholesaler, while you want to serve the crew good and healthy food. Get on with it!’

Boatswain

‘All my life, I was into water sports. I swam and surfed. Sailing had never occurred to me before, but if I had discovered sailing earlier in life, I would still have wanted to become a bosun.
I love the sound of the water you hear as the ship cuts through the waves and wind. In the galley, you just don’t notice much of that. You have to force yourself to go outside, otherwise it passes you by. That you can see the stars and sometimes the entire Milky Way, that’s very cool. In the middle of the sea it is pitch black. You don’t have that in the city. And on this trip it is very special that there is nothing around you, no ship, nothing. You are also very alone then. What if things don’t go well, what do you do then. That does give me food for thought.

Exciting

‘Something exciting I experienced on board? I’m still waiting for a mega storm actually! I did experience once when we had to cook on a rolling ship. We were smashed through the whole galley. That’s challenging though. And I sleep at the front end of the ship. That’s where you really get your bed thrown out with high waves. But I never felt unsafe. As a trainee, I have sometimes set the outer jib myself. You’re stuck, but that’s exciting! Then you keep standing in the crease of the sail and you have to tighten more and more clamps. The most exciting thing I experienced was my hand getting stuck. I was holding a line when mooring in Rotterdam, and I was pulled into a hole with my hands. It turned out all right, fortunately, but I was pretty shocked.’

Together with daughter

‘One of the best things I experienced was sailing together with my daughter, to Alicante. We were in her cabin at the time. She is very good at imitating people and we had a good laugh together, so much so that we thought, if it goes on like this, the captain will soon ask us to keep it down. What I also really enjoy is standing in the galley during maintenance. It’s very relaxing, you can do all kinds of lifelong chats with the crew. That is different on a day trip, which is very hard work. These kind of longer trips have a bit of both: you have to work hard but you can also chat or read a book in between. I often take my knitting along.

No stimuli

What cruising really brings me is a kind of compulsory rest. I’m just not there right now. I don’t get any apps from work and will be back in a few weeks. All the stimuli are gone, which is nice, while it is not isolation because you do have people around you. It’s nice to get away from it all. I work in psychiatry and that’s pretty tough. Since I have been sailing, my work feels easier. I don’t have to weigh my words so much here. It is very pleasant on board and I am surrounded by nice people. I hope I can continue to do that for a long time. If I had discovered sailing earlier in life, I would still have wanted to become a bosun. But this way I can also join in on board!’

Source: Dieuwke de Jong on the Zeilhelden (‘Sail Heroes’) site.
Image: Dieuwke de Jong.

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