The pickup truck pulled up beside the dock. I hopped out the passenger side door. The afternoon sea breeze was blowing in, bringing in the fresh smell of saltwater to accompany the beginnings of a dazzling Florida Gulf Coast sunset.
I marveled at it a moment. Chris walked up beside me.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said as he put his arm on my shoulder.
"It is," I replied. "Now imagine what it's going to be like when we're on that boat."
The water - and specifically scuba diving - is what brought the two of us together. Chris and I met on a dive boat - he was an aspiring marine scientist, me a dive instructor in training. We hit it off almost immediately. Pretty soon we weren't just diving together, but sharing most of our lives together.
This trip, though, was a totally different animal. This was not our first dive trip together - we had already done a dozen day trips and two long weekends in the Florida Keys. This, however, was a live-aboard trip - meaning the next four days and three nights, the boat would be our home. Although I figured we'd probably spend most of our time underwater, there wouldn't be anywhere to get away from each other when we weren't diving.
We stood there at the dock, mesmerized by the beauty of the sunset for a moment. Then Chris patted me on the shoulder. "We've got four days of this to look forward to, but now we have paperwork to fill out," he said. I nodded knowingly and followed him into the office to sign our waivers.
We returned to the truck to gather our bags. We dropped our gear bags on deck and headed down a narrow set of stairs in the cabin to the sleeping quarters. They lacked a little privacy - they were community bunk beds, two sets of four bunks on either side of the boat with a marine head and shower at the back.
"This'll be fun," I muttered as I followed Chris towards the back. Seeing the cramped bunks in person was suddenly causing reality to set in. I knew going into this that it wasn't going to be a posh resort - but on a dive boat almost big enough to be considered a cruise ship, I wasn't expecting such tiny quarters. Chris and I were not only not going to be able to get away from each other, we were pretty much going to have to spend the weekend less than four feet away from each other.
"Here's a top and bottom that haven't been claimed," he said.
"Fine by me."
As my head continued to spin, Chris grabbed my suitcase. "Here, I'll get that for you. Are you okay with the bottom?"
My spinning thoughts had officially spun out of control. I grinned sheepishly, trying hard not to giggle.
"Faith!" he scolded playfully, giving me a gentle shove. "You know what I meant."
"Of course I know what you meant," I replied, the laughter bubbling over. "That doesn't mean I can't have a little fun."
He pushed my suitcase towards the back. When he turned around, he paused to give me a kiss on the cheek.
"We'll have fun," he whispered in my ear. "I promise that much."
We went back one more time and grabbed the last of our stuff - our sleeping bags and pillows, then went back down to drop them off. We returned to the deck to begin assembling our gear and to listen to the captain's safety briefing.
Not long after, we popped a bottle of champagne for all aboard, and as the boat pulled from the dock and headed for the reef, we sipped under the hypnosis of that gorgeous sunset and began our weekend of adventure.
As I was going to find out, that meant a lot more than scuba diving.
~~~~~
We awoke the next morning by nearly being thrown from our bunks. The Dry Tortugas are the extreme end of the Florida Keys - another seventy miles past Key West. This far out into the open water, away from any sizable land mass, the currents run strong and the seas a lot higher than either of us were used to.
After going into the head to throw my tankini-style bathing suit on, I carefully made my way up into the main cabin, where there was a danish spread and a fresh pot of coffee waiting for us. A couple of the other divers were already eating, so I went ahead and dug in. Within about fifteen minutes, most of the divers were feasting themselves and getting ready for the day. Not being a morning person, I ate in near silence.
I finished eating and rinsed my coffee mug. Trying to clear my head of the last of the morning fog, I headed out to the sun deck. I stared into the cobalt blue water, imagining the sights I could see below.
All of a sudden, I felt Chris' hands grasp my waist. He bent down and kissed me on the back of my neck, his intentions starting to become clear.
"Enjoying yourself yet?"
