Kip Powick Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 So we wander off the AC flight into Cayo Coco for Customs and Immigration. I’m carrying a new digital underwater camera and new underwater housing as well as my laptop computer. The new camera has a myriad of settings on it and although I was going to use a 512mb card in the camera, I felt it would be best to utilize my laptop to download the many pictures to ascertain what settings on the new camera worked best underwater. As anyone knows, the finer you tune the settings on a digital camera, the less pictures one gets. I needed the laptop to analyze all the photos and perhaps tweak some of the photo settings with respect to gamma etc. My laptop goes through Security, in its case, and the Security fellow asks if I have a laptop. I say “yes”, and he asks what resort I am going to. I tell him and he waves me through. We plunge in the sea close to twice a day and each night I download my photos, about 100 each day and “play” with them. The next day I try different settings and things are looking pretty good. I think I have the combination of settings on the camera that will give me the best pictures. About day 10, I am sitting in my room at night happily doing some business on my computer when it starts to hiss at me…just briefly. The hissing stops and I hear a distinct “pop” and my TFT screen looks like someone pitched a rock through it. I have lost 2/3s of my viewing area. Oh well, I think I have the camera figured out and the other work can wait until I get home. Put the computer away. On day 14 we head home. I think that I might as well put my laptop inside my ex AC roll-a-board as we now have room for it, (took a bunch of baby clothes and other stuff, vitamins etc. down for a young lady who was having her first child) and why carry it through Security and X-ray and all that again. Just check it with the luggage…so we do. We go through the normal procedures at Customs/Immigration and Security although the young fellow is not sure what Scuba regulators are so we open the carry on bag and one of his buddies tells him what all the hoses/regs and computers are for. We board AC about 40 minutes before pushback. We are chatting with the fellow beside us and the I/C makes a PA looking for someone, but not by name but by boarding pass number. Can’t be me, after all I know how the system works. I guess some non-acquainted, non-frequent flyer never turned in their pass or something. He keeps asking for the person who has boarding pass 113 to please identify themselves. A micro burst of memory surfaces in my brain as I seem to remember that I saw 114 on my boarding pass…ooops…that would mean that Scuba 02 is 113. At that moment of realization, the I/C finally comes up with our last name on the PA, which he bastardizes into what sounds like Polish for “Power keg”. Sheepishly, just as this stern looking Cuban authority comes on board I press the “ding-dong”.. It seems they have my roll-a-board over at Security and their X-Ray machine picked up the fact that there was a laptop in the bag. “You, sir…follow me”. So in front of 158 other customers I trot off the aircraft, met by 2 guards at the bottom of the stairs and away we go back to the terminal and into a Security office. There is my AC roll-a-board up on a sterile table and three people staring at it. “Open Sir”. Well now the “fun” begins. I don’t have a lock for the case so I use one of those electrical bundle zip ties and thread it through where the two zippers meet. The normal method of opening it is to wait until we get all our baggage and in the corner of one “checked-in” gear bag, there is a tiny little pair of scissors that I use to cut the tie when we get home or to our destination. “Senor, do you have a knife?” I asked. Of the seven people now gathered around the table, this was now becoming theatre; no one had anything sharp enough to cut the plastic tie. Three people were sent scurrying into the bowels of the terminal in search of something sharp. About 5 minutes passed and no one moved. I asked the “guard” if he had a match. Using sign language, my Spanish poor, his English non-existent, we managed to get across what I wanted. Tentatively he handed me his lighter and the crowd moved back as I flashed up the lighter and started to melt the plastic tie….a soft “oooooooh” went up from the gathering. I melted the tie, shoved a few T-shirts out of the way and victoriously held up my laptop!!! “You turn on”, said Senor Happy Face. I cranked up the computer and frowns crossed seven faces as the screen lit up and the TFT display looked like someone had shot a bullet through my laptop lid. I explained through the AC rep, to the Security guy, that the screen was “fubar” but I did proof the computer as it did turn on so what was the problem? Before I could say anything the Security guy had his fingers flying across the keyboard and before I knew it, he was in My Photographs Folder. On my laptop I have about 900 photos, all connected with Scuba Diving in Cuba, the vast majority underwater, some of the people we dive with and a few of the resort grounds and facilities within each resort. All the files are titled…Unfortunately for me they all started with “Cuba Dive 2001” then “Cuba Dive 2002A” “Cuba Dive 2002B” and so on, right up to “Cuba Dive 2005Test”, Well Happy Face started to look at the pictures but what was hilarious was that with 2/3rds of the screen gone he could only see 1/3 of every photo. I figured we would be there for about 4 hours. He would stop, frown and ask me what some of the pictures were. I told him the names of various fish, the names of the Dive Masters and the names of all the resorts we had stayed at in the past 5 years. There seemed to be no rationale as to which picture he would open next but I kept my eye on the title of each picture before he opened it so had an idea of what I should tell him. About 10 minutes later the crowd grew weary of seeing so little that anyone could recognize on the screen and they started to drift away. About 10 minutes later the Security guy grew weary, and probably cross-eyed, trying to figure out what the pictures were so he looked at me solemnly and said “Close machine”. I shut it down and there was a flurry of activity as everyone was looking at their watches and running for the A320…..I guess they get rated for OTP as well. The AC Rep took the bag, sans a zip tie lock and hoisted it to the aft baggage hold and I was told to run up the stairs into the aircraft. I as I entered the cabin I received a hearty round of applause and I cringed as I slumped into seat 1A. We were 6 minutes late on Pushback…totally attributed to me. I was pretty sure what they were looking for…it is expressly forbidden to take photos of any military installations in Cuba and I guess they might have thought I had a whole laptop full of “ Verbotten photos”, the funny thing is that there are no Military installations near any of the resorts and what is even more thought provoking is that I would estimate that of the 159 people on the aircraft probably half had digital cameras with them yet none of the photos that were in their cameras were ever checked. The fact that all these people had photos in their camera but were not being checked crossed my mind as Senor Happy Face went through my reams of photos and whimsically I thought I might suggest he go out and check all the cameras….but …I did a bit of thinking…for a change ….I mean really…just how popular did I want to be !!!!!!?? . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cargo Agent Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 Kip, now your back safely in Canada, it's okay to admit you retired from AC and now work for the CIA as a Navy Seal scouting landing beaches for Bush's next foray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 Kip, now your back safely in Canada, it's okay to admit you retired from AC and now work for the CIA as a Navy Seal scouting landing beaches for Bush's next foray. Was he REALLY down in Cuba, or was he on a clandestine mission for the SEALS scoping out the beaches of Iran, Bushes next target??? Welcome back Kip... Hope you had a good time while it was -20 here Iceman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 Never mind Kip, you're easily worth six minutes. Welcome home. Cheers, Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rattler Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 Kip, glad to see you trust the baggage handling system enough to pack a lap top in your checked bag..... Even AC warns against that. Packing Tips * Do not wrap bungee cords, ties or straps around baggage. * Remove all old airline tags from your luggage. * Attach identification tags to the inside and outside of the bag, giving destination as well as home addresses. * Keep all medications and high value items such as cameras, jewelry electronic devices and cash with you, do not put them in checked baggage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted February 6, 2005 Author Share Posted February 6, 2005 With the screen cracked, what more could AC do that would lessen it's value?? It's toast, and I know the makers are going to laugh their butts off when I ask if I can buy a replacement screen....... it's close to 10 years old. It has more miles on it than some of AC's A320s....... And if you were wondering if I was worried about "pilfering" the answer is "No". I wish someone had stolen it, I would get more from my insurance than I'll get now ((Normally carried onboard as hand luggage, except when I was flying, when I used to put it in my roll-a-board.)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccairspace Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 Welcome back Kip. Perhaps I should put Cuba on my "someplace warm to holiday" list for next winter. Certainly plan to talk to you first if I do. By the way, wave good-bye as you board the plane next time... ccairspace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreatSlave Posted February 7, 2005 Share Posted February 7, 2005 Kip, Nice to see that you're back. Please fill us in on your vacation and diving when you get a chance. Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumbi Posted February 7, 2005 Share Posted February 7, 2005 Actually Kip, I think you're lucky that they let you take your laptop into Cuba in the first place... Usually they ask, oops, tell you to leave it with them until you get out of the country... same with portable dvd players, unless the rules have changed lately! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted February 7, 2005 Author Share Posted February 7, 2005 Actually Kip, I think you're lucky that they let you take your laptop into Cuba in the first place... Usually they ask, oops, tell you to leave it with them until you get out of the country... same with portable dvd players, unless the rules have changed lately! There is no problem taking in a laptop. They do restrict DVD players and any other video playing equipment but there are no restrictions on computers. I can see where they could hold a laptop if it had a DVD player built in but I was not questioned about it inbound, and besides that I do/did not have a DVD player built in, just a floppy and CD player. Sayyyy...wanna buy a slightly used laptop ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumbi Posted February 7, 2005 Share Posted February 7, 2005 Thanks for the update Kip, as for the used laptop...let me think about it!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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