The BViPads

You would have to have never heard of Facebook to not know that I’ve just spent 10 days sailing around The British Virgin Islands – photos and videos are appearing daily. We last did this trip 2 years ago and let me tell you the major difference between then and now. The iPad2. In 2010 we spent our time sailing during the day, mooring off tropical beaches and enjoying an occasional trip shore for the famous “painkillers” – a wonderful rum punch that sells everywhere. We would sit, watch the world go by and chat about all sorts of stuff. In 2012, we moored off those same beaches, visited the same bars (usually a wooden hut with medieval furniture) and sat around whilst everyone connected to the free wifi (now essential if you want customers) and checked their email and/or Facebook. I don’t just mean the crew of The Osprey. I mean everyone – tourists and locals alike. Our boat had wifi (although admittedly it rarely worked), the beach bars had wifi, the restaurants had wifi, the hotels had wifi – and most of it free. Last time I was out there I posted photos to Facebook from my iPhone. This time, I took no technology other than my Kindle (for reading) and stayed off-line for 99% of the trip, indulging in 2 phone calls to base camp in the 2 week trip. Co-incidentally, my choice of holiday reading was the Steve Jobs biography – which I would recommend to all as a fantastic history of the man (a difficult person) and his companies. Jobs left a legacy that has changed the world – as evidenced on this trip. Holidays used to be about “getting away from it all”. Now they seem to be about “taking the technology with you”. Not so for me, thank you. Thank you to the crew of The Osprey for keeping their surfing (sorry, typing) to a minimum, which meant that we were still able to enjoy great conversations. cb