Slow boat to China: a writer's retreat becomes a view of global recession.(Short story)

'I'M sure they told you about the change in the schedule?" the chipper, bearded master of the Hanjin Miami asked me as the 90,000-ton container ship eased effortlessly away from its berth in the port of Seattle.

"Change in schedule?" I asked, watching as the gap between ship and land grew from three feet to six feet to too far to jump with luggage. We were supposed to cross the Pacific and arrive in Shanghai in 16 days. And then I was supposed to fly back to California, back to work, to meetings. I had stuff to do.

The ship started to pick up speed. "Is it a big change?" I asked.

"Yes, yes," he said quickly in his soft German accent--he was busy steering the ship through the thick Seattle fog. "About a week. Maybe more. Hard to say. The global economic slowdown, you know. The front office tells us to slow down and save fuel. So we'll go to Korea and anchor there." He turned back to his work.

I looked out into the mist. On the computer desktop in my mind, I clicked on the "Travel Info" folder. Out popped my complicated plans--the hotel in Shanghai, the nonrefundable flight back to the United States. I'd have to cancel or change all of these. The lights of Seattle drifted farther away, which meant only one thing to me: I was about to lose my cell coverage.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, didn't say this when he introduced the iPhone two years ago, but I'm here to tell you: It's perfect for those moments when, after the captain of a large container ship tells you that your passage to Shanghai is going to be delayed, you have to frantically log on to Travelocity, send six emails notifying people that you're going to be out of touch for three weeks rather than two, redo your outgoing message, and send four text messages to four different people with the same basic information ("Will B a LOT L8R. Heading out to C.").