I can't believe it's been nearly two weeks since I returned from my scuba diving trip to the Bahamas. While returning to work from a vacation is hard enough, I had the added burden of moving to another law firm, which is one of the reasons why it took me this long to return to blogging. The change of work place happened rather suddenly, with the partner I worked under at my previous firm telling me the week before my vacation that she was moving to another firm several blocks away and that some of the clients were following her, including the client for whom I the majority of my work. She told me that the new firm said she could bring a paralegal with her and asked if I would be interested. It only made sense to do so, since a good chunk of my workload was leaving with her. Plus, the new firm said they would match my salary, so I decided to make the move.
Anyway, back to the vacation. It was on a liveaboard in the Bahamas called the Aqua Cat. Above is a picture of the Aqua Cat at dock as seen from a nearby outdoor bar called The Green Parrot. I had my two kids in tow so that my wife could have a week of peace and quiet to herself rather than having to stay home with them while I cavorted in the azure waters of the Bahamas.
The trip got off to a bit of a rocky start. We all met at the house of Martha, one of the people going on the trip, at 4:30 in the morning to catch our ride to Newark Airport, where our flight to Nassau was scheduled to depart at 7:30. I thought it might be cutting things a little too close, but figured we would make it in time. But when we finally got to the group checkin area at Continental Airlines terminal at 6:30, the lady behind the counter told us that the computer would not allow her to check us in and that we would not make the 7:30 flight. Sue, the wife of Larry, who used to own the dive shop where I took my lessons, pleaded with the lady to no avail and then demanded to speak with a supervisor.
A few minutes later, a supervisor, a more pleasant Latina, had us move to a different counter where Sue continued to plead our cause. Finally, when all hope seemed lost, the supervisor said she could take all but four of us. So Sue, Martha, Tara, Nina, Bruce, Ira and Jeff checked in their bags, received their boarding passes and proceeded to the departure gate. That left Larry, myself, and my two kids. After a few minutes, the supervisor returned and after spealing with Larry, told him that she would put us on standby for the next flight for Nassau scheduled to leave at 8:55. We checked in our bags, got our boarding passes, and then did the security screening shuffle and headed for the departure gate. Fortunately for us, the agent at the gate told us that we would be able to board the plane.
Several hours later, we found ourselves in Nassau and the Aqua Cat arranged for us to be picked up. We were dropped off at the Green Parrot, where the rest of the gang was already relaxing. The Aqua Cat doesn't let passengers board until 6 p.m., which meant that we had to wait another four or five hours. Normally, that wouldn't be so bad, but I developed a rip-roaring migraine that refused to go away. I tried napping it off to no avail, and finally around 5 p.m. I asked for permission to go to my cabin on the Aqua Cat so that I could sleep on the bed in my cabin. When I awoke a couple of hours later, everyone else had boarded and it would soon be time for dinner. I still hadn't completely shaken the headache, so Martha's son Greg, who came down on a different flight, gave me a couple of Tylenol PM.
After the dinner, prepared by the Aqua Cat's Chef Kirk, we were treated to the orientation lectures by the ship's captain Mark and the lead dive master Ian. I retired early that night, looking forward to waking up the next day feeling refreshed and ready to hit the waters.
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