Trawler Lifestyle | PassageMaker Magazine & Events

Heavey Meatl, cold to the touch.  Everything under foot feels solid, secure. A dropped platter of hors d'oeuvres shatters on impact like a fragile glass ornament, yet there's no worry about cracked gelcoat or dented teak.

Resting arms on the gunwales of a steel ship, my eyes scan the horizon, as thousands have done since the dawn of the last century. Back during a time of raw courage, when bravery was measured in buckets of cold seawater on a rolling deck, mercilessly timed between long periods of endless boredom, when hard men went to sea on ships of steel.

Row 17, seat C is about halfway back, seemingly ancient Boeing 727 that is American Airlines Flight 923, now boarding for a flight from Miami International to Guatemala City.

As I settle into my seat for the trip to Central America, I see it will be a full flight, along with the inevitable confusion of filled overheads and shortened tempers of the late-boarding passengers. The language barrier doesn't help, either, as I hear a mix of Spanish, English, and German among those lingering in the aisles.