"The sea is so big, and my ship is so small."

Unless you've crossed a major portion of the world at a speed that can be visualized directly by the human mind (on foot, on horseback, or on a ship), it is really impossible to get an emotional, instinctive grasp of just how big this planet really is, and how small we and all our works are.

We have such pride in our pathetic little tools, our radar and our satellites, our radios and our procedures and regulations, that it is difficult to understand how futile they are when facing the abyss.

Personally, I'm amazed disappearances like this one don't happen a lot more often.