Page - 190 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 1/2015

190 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 1 2o15 Nataša Rogelja | The sea: place of ultimate freedom? we want adventure, because we belong nowhere, because we do not want to live in a rat race, because we are used to move, because boats can be untied.” constant mobility, ongoing quests and mobile economic practices - although interspersed with periods of sedentarism - are deeply incorporated in this way of life and constitute its everydayness. for my interlocutors the sea also functions as a place where the on-going mobility is not questionable and where one can still be invisible. A German family that I met in the corinth canal explained they often use travel as a cover in front of their family, friends and school back home. At the same time, they also stated that they are very inclined towards traveling and sailing, but their main reason for leaving their previous life behind was based on their desire to spend more quality time together. Due to a host of reasons (high costs of living, long working hours in order to pay the bills, moral dilem- mas arising from work in the corporate system of neo-liberalism…), this was not possible for them in Germany. As the mother explained: “It would be weird to go and live somewhere in the mountains in order to spend time together. […] If you say I travel you are normal… If you say I sail you are like a hero.” Out there at sea (sitting in the cockpit of the modern sailing boat) having had the experience of living on a boat, I noticed that the importance of the sea as a concrete physical environment cannot be overlooked as it demands special practical bodily adaptations (to stand/to cook/to sleep … on a moving object), it can cause seasickness, it can produce special psychological problems (being in a wide open space without landmarks), it can stimulate religious or emotional experiences (again due to its wide open space) and offers a mobile platform for the perpetual quest for a better life. Apart from the sea, the boat should also be taken into consideration – physically and metaphorically. My interlocutors generally agreed that without the rapid development of affordable navigation technology and boat building industry, a maritime lifestyle would not have been possible for them, adding that the impulses and experiences they obtained from living on a boat and on the sea are not only connected with culturally relevant images. Many of my interlocutors referred to the boat as to an extension of their body or personalised it to the level of their travel companions. furthermore, the sea is undoubtedly connected with motion, as one hardly can stay still at sea. Islands function only as shelters while the sea is traversed and are left behind as the waves obliterate the tracks. As Phelan observed, the seas are empty and full at the same time; full of routes, memories and symbols, yet empty and hardly deserving to be called a place. “What is there for us at sea then? Nothing but a boat, one’s body and endless waves…” (2007: 5). The sea is therefore on a practical level characterised by crossing, movement, connection, but also with fractures, hardship and disuniting, as Phelan continues (ibid). change and fluidity, together with motion, are also useful concepts to bear in mind when dealing with the sea as a physi- cal environment. Phelan furthermore observed how constant shifts of the wind, phases of the moon and fluctuation of the sand support the idea of change and fluidity on the practical level (ibid). Many of my interlocutors described the total contrast between the romantic and very comfortable calm sea and the horror of the storm, as well as the joy of sailing on a choppy sea. The landscape changes or disappears as the boat moves by, the layer of the water around the