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Come sail away ...

Looking for an escape from life's daily pressures? Check out this film.

Have you ever contemplated leaving the pressures of work and daily life behind and escaping to a peaceful, quiet place? Three years ago, Italian filmmaker Lorenzo Fonda did just that—by sailing across the ocean on a container ship.

In 2008, Fonda traveled from Los Angeles to Shanghai on the M.V. Portland Senator, a 4,545-TEU container ship chartered by Hanjin Shipping. He brought along a video camera and later produced a 10-minute film titled "10 Things I Have Learned About the Ocean."


It's worth making the time to watch the video and consider Fonda's piquant observations about the ocean. The views of endless expanses of waves and water in all kinds of weather, set to a New Age soundtrack, are soothing. You can feel the ship's slow, almost hypnotic progress across the Pacific. And the scenes of the ship's nighttime departure from Los Angeles and sunrise arrival at Shanghai are both beautiful and mysterious.

Click here to watch the film. We recommend pouring yourself a cup of herbal tea, turning off your e-mail, and viewing the film full-screen to get the full therapeutic effect.

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