Sailing Eendracht: learning the ropes

Lawyer Dieuwke de Jong sailed as a photographer on the Eendracht, during the Atlantic crossing from Jamaica to the Azores. She shares her experiences in diary excerpts and images on the Zeilhelden website.

7 February 2025

I have now been on board for two days. As a photographer, I am not officially on a watch, but first rotated with the blue watch which includes a number of young girls, led by quartermaster Merlin and quartermaster-in-training Marcel. My first 4-8 night watch is over. I am slowly starting to find my feet. This is quite difficult at first: everything is new, I have barely slept and feel a bit Bambi-on-ice, but it is starting to come together. We were on our way to Kingston (capital of Jamaica) to bunker. A truck and a hose were used to fill the ship’s tank and there we went. As the sun disappeared below the horizon, the anchor was lifted and hosed down clean and the dinghy brought in. Meanwhile, we could wave goodbye to the last land.

2 March 2025

We have been underway for a few days now! We have now sailed past Cuba and land is nowhere to be seen. Pretty crazy actually, that we are passing all countries I have never been to before. Cuba, Haiti, the Turks and Caicos Islands ….. I stare at them like dashes on the horizon and can almost hear the life, the effervescence and the still unexplored adventures. Well along, not there; it defies my curiosity. I have stopped being part of the watches to be fully available for the photography. I struggle a bit with my role. As a photographer, I am not really a part of the crew; more of an observer than a participant. That is part of my role, but it also means that I don’t really sail and participate when I want to experience that too. In between, I do help with sailing operations, but still, it is not the same as really participating. I think about that in the future, the weather is calm now, so the important thing is to portray and interview as many people as possible and take action photos. I just focus on that completely.

3 March 2025

There is a pigeon on board. In the middle of the ocean. The poor animal can no longer land in any place to rest and so now it goes with us. We are sailing in the Bermuda Triangle and the weather is still calm. It is already getting slightly colder. At night, you need a jumper after 11 o’clock now and that was not the case a day ago. Last night I briefly joined the white watch that rotated from 8-12, when we saw something crazy flying over, among the stars. It gave off a lot of light, passed over us in a kind of arc and left a trail. It was definitely not a plane and no one had ever seen anything like it before. Amazed, we watched the thing until it disappeared. We saw a UFO in the Bermuda Triangle, who can say that! We just dismissed it as space junk.

Yesterday I photographed a lot and I am happy with the results. Musing, I stared ahead in the evening. First I stared at the water, then at the stars. Proud I was, and for a moment very happy. In this exact moment, I am living exactly what my dream was and why I quit my job: a free photographers’ life that lets me meet and capture special people, tell their stories with images, and be on a journey for that.

March 6, 2025 – morning

The wind is blowing! And how. Above 30 knots, about 33, and this morning our speed was above 12 knots. We’re speeding like a javelin. The pigeon disappeared. Blown away, boatman Mathijs told us, who had seen the bird being grabbed by the wind during sail operations, facing a sailor’s grave. Tragic.

I am fully rotating with the 8-12 watch for a few days and this morning I photographed again. This is increasingly a challenge, as  walking upright is difficult, let alone with a camera. This morning I shot a portrait series of aspiring quartermaster Rene. Clipped into a harness, I hang to shoot, aiming at his eye to get the focus point right; quite a challenge with so much movement! While shooting, I make a quick prayer for as little spray as possible to save my equipment. No surface on the ship is saltless anymore and my camera too has to be spared.

It was great waiting along and sailing, all day and then at night too! From tomorrow, I’m going to do that again. What a life….

We will publish Dieuwke’s experiences in successive reports.
Source: Zeilhelden (also for more pictures of Dieuwke).
Image: Dieuwke de Jong.

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