Steven L. Benson Collision of Destinies

Annotation

Steve Benson is a pugnacious, outgoing, and athletic twenty-six-year-old. After losing his first professional teaching assignment in Minneapolis,Minnesota, he puts his career on hold and hits the road in a rebuilt Volkswagen. The trip takes him toFt. Lauderdale, Florida, where he discovers an ad asking for men with mechanical ability to work onship. He wins the job and moves on board the 185 foot vessel on a promise he be chosen to accompany the newly remodeled vessel to SouthAmerica. In this travelogue, the Miami-based renovation process is fraught with conflict and deception during which Steve and ten othercrewmen survive the hostile work environment long enough to board passengers bound for theGalapagos Islands; where iguanas spit, whales calve, and seals dance in one of the worlds most unique wildlife sanctuaries. It is during thisincredible journey that captain Mike of the M/V Buccaneer becomes Stevens father figure, the crew his surrogate family, and Steve moves agiant step closer to becoming a man.