Storm on the way to Horta

Dieuwke de Jong is a photographer, lawyer, and sailor. For Zeilhelden, she portrayed sailors on the Eendracht, and using diary excerpts, she documented her own experiences on a crossing from Jamaica to the Azores.

14 March

What a stormy night it was. The wind averaged about 50 knots, wind force 10, with peaks above 60 knots. At 5 o’clock in the morning, I am finally in bed. Being at the helm in the night with such a heavy storm is something of a majestic experience. The ship tilts due to those gigantic waves and with three small storm sails we still manage to reach a speed of about 7.5 knots and that for such a big ship that has eight sails up with full rigging. We were flying over the waves. We started the night with a full moon, so there was quite a lot of light, but then came a lunar eclipse. I’ve never seen one quite like last night. There were quite a lot of clouds, which is why we don’t see it every time, but every now and then the clouds part and then, waauuuw … There is less and less of the moon left and at the full eclipse all that can be seen is a faint soft red ball. It is pitch black, while hearing and seeing is lost to you because of the immensely strong wind. People wear earplugs to protect their ears.

In the kitchen, eggs were launched into the night by the pounding waves. Not just a few, no, just about all the eggs lay broken on the floor. Some of our watch spent hours cleaning that up. And that’s while it’s undulating incredibly, so they slide through the eggs from left to right like through some kind of XL omelette. There are only a few eggs left so we will have to do without eggs for breakfast and freshly baked biscuits for the rest of the time. I am lucky to have been behind the helm, but feel a bit guilty when I came downstairs after the watch. What a mess! I help clean up a bit more and then outside we spray the egg muck off each other with the deck hose, in the howling wind. I’ve earned my sleep now!

16 March

What a lovely day it is today. I woke up happy and energetic. The sun is shining! Straight blue it is, and it has been a while, while there is enough wind to sail nicely. Yesterday, I struggled with myself. I was tired, but wanted to photograph. But that didn’t go so well each time during the bad weather, so I had to make myself take lots of photos. Only I didn’t like anything I took. Little things I liked, uninspiring crap! I lost it completely. Writersblock, helmsman Felix called it and that’s right. Creating while tired is also very difficult. In the end, I decided to take a rest. Today, the world looks very different again and I photograph with great pleasure and creative energy. Trainee Luuk said I was too hard on myself and I guess he is right. After shooting, I sit with Valerie and Felix at the back of the ship. We stare at the water in the sun, all three of us with our chins on the railing, musing about what is the most beautiful piece of water and why. Is it the crests of the waves, the glare of the sun on the horizon or the swirling water behind the ship? Sometimes we close our eyes just to listen to the sounds of the water. Very nice to experience this moment too, the silence after the storm.

18 March

Time suddenly flies. Tomorrow we arrive in the Azores! Funny, the day before yesterday it seemed we still had 9 days to go and now suddenly we are almost there. We saw a fishing boat today. A sign that we are now getting really close to land.

19 March

Today – well, overnight – we arrive. This morning I was on watch, which was lovely and sunny. Half my watch was still in bed. Last night they had been taken out because something had broken at the stays of the boom jib, causing the stays to come loose. Big alarm, of course. All sails had to come down and we continued on engine. For that, a lot of people had to be drummed out of bed. We therefore do our watch this morning with a thinned-out group. At the stay, a fastening piece turns out to be completely worn through. Meanwhile, a new one has been inserted and we can sail again. Fortunately, because there is a nice wind force 5 and on the engine you roll much more between the waves than under sail. With my own sailboat, no one in my right mind would think of going out on the water at wind force 5, now I think: “oh well, nice breeze though.” Matter of perspective apparently. Not that we are not bouncing over the waves now that we are under sail. I think the most frequently uttered phrase on board is “keep the boat steady!” when someone almost goes under again. You learn that the waves have a cadence that you can tune into and every so often there are big hits in between. I am now, after the watch, sitting in the dayroom writing for about 15 minutes. In that time, another book and a cup have already flown across the table. At the clappers, it sounds like the world is ending. Everything in the galley bangs back and forth, while people read a book undisturbed, and the cook sings quietly on in the kitchen. As if nothing is going on. Never let go of your cup is the motto, and always one hand to yourself so you don’t go flying. We sleep, eat, drink tea, cook, clean, while we find ourselves on a kind of rollercoaster, and I don’t mean that in a figurative sense. You adapt to it. I’m curious to see what that will be like soon when I walk on land again.

More and more often we see birds. Earlier too, occasional petrels, but they are now in greater numbers. We saw another fishing boat and also the ocean below us is a lot shallower: around a kilometre now. The land is getting closer and all these signs of life are a bit surprising after such a long time in this miniature society, outside of which nothing seems to exist but ocean. Time has flown. I am proud of myself. Of how I managed to stay with myself, to take time to stop and reflect, to find a balance between my two roles, so that I could photograph but also sail, and experience both to the fullest. Soon the world will be here again, with all its complexity and busyness. I hope to take with me the internal peace I feel here.

20 March

It was exciting for a while after all. We couldn’t enter the harbour in the evening after all, because the wind was too strong and we couldn’t anchor; there was something wrong with the anchor. So we sailed around the coast of the island of Faial all night. Ensign Hein had put up a quote a few days back: “though one sees church and tower standing, still the voyage is not done.” Quite appropriate. This morning, we finally made it. We walked in! The gangway went out and the first steps on land were taken. On to Peters Café Sport in Horta, a legend among ocean sailors. That was it then! Soon everyone will fan out, on to their next adventure.

Source: Sailing Heroes.
Text and image: Dieuwke de Jong.

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