As a quick reply to the thoughts about the reception we perceived from locals during our trip to BVI. I have travel extensively through Europe, South America, and Asia, along with multiple trips to the islands and have witnessed the "ugly American" syndrome of far too many occasions, I can attest to the fact that far too many Americans visit foreign countries and expect the locals in those areas to speak English, serve American food, and bend to our customs. I, for one, am generally overly apologetic for not speaking the language of the locals and bend over backwards to accept the fact that I am the visitor, not the host. Added to that, our entire crew is from Texas, where we proudly welcome all comers. My observations on the less than positive experience we witnessed on this recent visit is a radical departure from our prior visits-thus the surprise with this reception.

As one brief example, three couples of our crew arrived at the ferry terminal in Charlotte Amalie. Traveling as couples, my wife and I approached the ticket counter together-something done in almost every setting at hotels, airports, or other facilities. The agent rudely snapped at us and told my wife to get back in line, that only one person was allowed at the ticket counter at a time. And yes, I had greeted the ticket agent with a polite and smiling greeting, as we were all happy to be there and headed off to our adventure in paradise. As noted previously, I was totally surprised with the "greeting" received at the Moorings reception desk. Again, we have used the Moorings exclusively for eight trips and have always found the staff to be welcoming. And yes, I greeted the staff member with a smile and a "hello" as we again thrilled to be finally at the first step of our trip. We received the same chilled service from the individual at the desk as we returned several times to wrap up some minor shortcomings in the supplies delivered to the boat. And yes, we tried to identify the shortcomings with a simple statement that we were missing a couple of items. We were not angry, demanding or otherwise "ugly American." We were attempting to get away from the dock and being held up by the missing items, so we did make more trips to the desk than we should have been required to, but we understand "island time" and tried to get with the flow. We did have an excellent boat briefing experience, as well as an excellent debriefing upon arrival back at the base, so I would not want to paint everyone in that setting with a broad brush.

At several of the stops for shopping for either provisions or clothing, we again experienced either no service or service that clearly reflected an attitude that we were more of a bother than a source of revenue. Again, this has not been our experience in our past eight visits. As I noted in the original post, I was extremely impressed by the gentleman at the fuel dock in Great Harbor on Jost who overtly stated his appreciation for our business and the role we, as charter boat visitors, played in the restoration of their community. We never expected the locals to kiss our rings and heap praise on us, but equally, we did not expect to be treated as a PITA.

It was not my intent to be overly critical of the locals, as this was one element of the report we made to reflect the overall trip. At the end of the day, we had an awesome visit and we will definitely be back ASAP