"Scotty" wrote:
What would they do if you sent the injured up first and then
refused to go? I'm guessing they'll arrest you when you get
back to port?

As somebody else suggested, they would at the very least pull Joe's
license, possibly arrest them. The one case I know of where a boat
defied a USCG "suggestion" (which was that they return to dock, not
abandon) the boat was followed by the Coasties and about an hour later
boarded by Treasury agents who arrested... in a rather forceful & ugly
way... everyone on board including a couple of kids. Now sure what
the ultimate shake-out of that case was, last I heard the boat owner
(who was not a licensed captain) was suing Uncle Sam to get his boat
out of impoundment by several Federal agencies.

Anyway, ****ing off the USCG would be very very likely to get you
Homeland Security's sh** list, at the very least.

OzOne wrote:
Read what?

Hello? Injured crew?

If the boat can stay afloat without any assistance , It would
certainly have with someone aboard to help her.


Agreed.
But exercising that option would certainly have involved a face-down
with the USCG.

The fact that Joe is working on finding & recovering his boat shows
that he doesn't think it sank; and probably didn't think it was
sinking at the time. They called the USCG to evacuate an injured
crewman and ended up being ordered to *all* evacuate. Standard policy-
the Coasties don't want to come twice to the same rescue. Honestly
don't know I'd do in Joe's situation.

I know of another case (last year) where the USCG did actually tow a
vessel in distress; which AFAIK has been against their policy for
years. They weren't as far out as Joe was though.

DSK