Flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Chicago on my way home to Denver, I stared at the ocean below me. My eyes were searching for a boat on the water. My GPS in the window told me that we were flying almost directly over the route we had been sailing just 3 days earlier.

Several times while sailing I imagined how insignificant we must look from a jet flying overhead. I finally spotted a freighter almost 6 miles below us, and it was little more than a barely noticeable speck on an endless sea. I'm not sure I would be able to see a boat as small as our 45 foot sailboat from this altitude.