Tourists behaving badly while on holidays is hardly a new phenomenon.

However in a boating environment, it seems speed and recklessness can have a worse impact than, say, some obnoxious moron in a restaurant.

However if a bartender/server is treating me poorly because somebody was rude to them 2 weeks or 2 years ago, then they are in the wrong job. For me, I have done my last Full Moon Party at Trellis after standing in line at the bar for 15-20 minutes and watched everyone around me get service. Fortunately, we had women in our crew who got drinks ordered for the males in our party.

And I LOVE the BVIs having done 7 sailing trips and my 8th one booked for next February. I have heard all about “Island time” and, while I don’t quite get it, I am powerless to change attitudes (“Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude” as Jimmy would say…). But excruciating slow service from the moment you get off the ferry and sit through C&I with orders to fill out the form correctly “or else” to restaurant servers who have gone MIA, it is becoming more and more difficult to write it off as “part of the charm” of the islands. Then again maybe I’m just getting old and cranky…..

But for the record, I am not equating slow service with rudeness. The people I have met from the BVIs have been, for the most part, pleasant and proud of their islands.