The salt air reached the upper pool deck before two in the afternoon.

I sat in a blue mesh lounger with a paperback book face down on my lap, watching the green ocean water slosh against the thick glass safety barrier.

“That lounge chair beside you has been empty since we left Nassau,” an older woman said, stepping around the plastic side table.

She wore a wide-brimmed straw hat and pinched the front brim with two fingers as she checked the glare off the water.

A short man in khaki shorts followed behind her, carrying two tall paper cups stuck with small paper umbrellas.