ABSTRACT
This chapter explores creative wellbeing in the context of sailing long distances from the perspective of being one month at sea as part of a sail ship crew. A group of young people aged between 16 and 25 years were recruited from social services and were followed on their sailing expedition utilising sensory ethnography as a research approach. The Norwegian Windjammer Project provided the context to explore important insights in the process of creative wellbeing. In this context, time, solitude, and silence, which are intrinsic to being and working at sea, were found to be essential conditions for the identification of transcending experiences. Moments involving aesthetic experiences were also very important. Although the sailing necessarily relies on the twin skills of socialisation and cooperation with others, moments of solitude and rich sensory experiences were particularly powerful in the creative wellbeing process. These moments of solitude invited self-reflection and self-exploration, leading to new insights and behaviour, personal change, and self-development, as well as a heightened awareness of the natural world as essential to one’s existence, all of which are important aspects of eudaimonic wellbeing.
