Page - 187 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 1/2015

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 1 2o15 Nataša Rogelja | The sea: place of ultimate freedom? 187 “…The decision was clear. There will be no children, there will be no house […] Boat? Who knew about sailing at that time! School? Who knew that we would end up as school teachers? […] One year of working, one year of travelling, one year of working, one year of travelling. We liked that.” After spending years travelling the world, teaching English, even picking up a Masters degree, they ended up in the library mentioned in the opening of this article. »If he did it, we can do it!«, they agreed after reading the famous book of Moitessier. They got their boating licence and then bought their very first boat in New Zealand. It was 1986. The ten meter long sailing boat cost less than they expected. The boat was old, wooden and in dire need of repair. Year of production: 1933. When the boat was ready, they sailed off with no sailing experiences, with a plastic sextant that cost 25 dollars and a small radio, all the way from New Zealand to caledo- nia. 800 nautical miles, 17 days, headwinds and storms. Luckily at least radio did not fail. When french was getting louder and clearer on the airwaves, they knew they were approaching land. They landed and promised themselves they would never ever go back onto the open seas. They explained that adventure is adventure, life is life. Sailing just doesn’t suit them, they thought. Sitting in the cockpit of the boat, they spent next few months writing work applications. Some- where between the twentieth and twenty-fifth application they finally get it. Living on a boat is damn cheap. No rents, no bills, no mortgages. The ideal home. A mobile home. They clench their teeth and set off towards Australia. While Tom and Prudence didn’t speak about a single event causing their departure (as they left relatively young and prolonged their adventurous backpacking/teaching experience into an adventurous lifestyle at sea) for many of my interlocutors the concrete occasion, the point when the departure happened, was usually connected with a very specific individual event – a retirement or a possibility for early retirement, a redundancy, a political event, blocked career choices, disease, divorce or accident, the birth of children, setting up home on their own (in the case of younger generation), or an inheritance as well as other kinds of financial circumstances that enable the beginning of a journey. Ines (66), who lost a son in a car accident and shortly afterwards decided to sail around the world with her second partner, described her experience in the following way: “After the accident all was easy for me. I know it sounds weird. I lost fear… it was very easy for me to decide quickly and left behind all what was not important… At that time I just needed emptiness, loneliness, a space with nothing… The sea fitted me.” After spending a few years living on the sea, many of my interlocutors as well as authors of books described the sea as an infection, as a virus or as a drug; “…out of all the drugs, the sea is the most intoxicating” (horvat: 1996); or as Tom (50) stated: “…once you test this kind of life you cannot return to the land anymore…”. While the idea of a virus in the quotations above was contextualised with romantic connotations as well (this usually happened in the first interview), after spending a longer period with my interlocutors, practical aspects such as fresh air and their health, the effect of sunshine on their mood, and the fact that they avoided all the winter viruses afflicting sedentary life were highly important for continuing their lifestyle on the boat.