Jim Carter wrote:

Well Armond, you should read the law again. I read it several
times and I have interpreted it to mean that I, a Canadian citizen,
and my boat, which is Canadain registered, will be seized by the US
Govermnet Agencies empowered by this law, if they perceive that I
will be travelling in US waters and my "intent" is to travel from
US waters to Cuba.

First, there are no _laws_ governing the subject. There are instead a
number of regulations administered by the US Treasury Department via the
Office of Foreign Assets Control. I suggest _you_ make a further study of
these regulations. Try:

http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforce...uide-cuba.html

Second, the USCG and those few other agencies engaged in enforcement of the
regulations, do indeed have defined authority over all vessels that are
operating in US territorial waters. However barring extraordinary
circumstances, they have _no_ authority over non-US vessels in international
waters or on the high seas. There is no provision in the referenced
regulations that affects these "laws of the sea."

No one is suggesting that the US is behaving rationally in this matter, but
this is not new. The embargo and associated activities date to the early
1960's. Instead of ranting about one or another government's distasteful
behavior, I suggest a closer study of the facts. If it can be demonstrated
that provisions exist in the regulations that authorize US government
agencies to interfere with non-US vessels on the high seas (barring
extraordinary circumstances), I would certainly like to learn about it.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 08:01:47 -0500, "Jim Carter"
wrote:


Well Armond, you should read the law again. I read it several times and I
have interpreted it to mean that I, a Canadian citizen, and my boat, which
is Canadain registered, will be seized by the US Govermnet Agencies
empowered by this law, if they perceive that I will be travelling in US
waters and my "intent" is to travel from US waters to Cuba.

Yep. If you play Desi Arnaz 78s off Syracuse in a Canadian boat, the
I-68 or whatever the form is called won't protect you if they think
you're contemplating a cigar run. This is why I will not cross the
lake. I do not care to subsidize fanaticism or to risk
state-sanctioned theft because some nautical mall cops thinks I might
be a Commie sympathiser. Well, no, but I do enjoy a Havana Club rum at
the dock on occasion.

So my increasingly lucrative dollars stay here in Soviet Canuckistan
until someone grows a brain and a sense of proportion and respect for
international law.

To me this amounts to Piracy.

Well, any excuse will do with the arrr-yo-ho-ho types.

As the late Bill Hicks noted, the U.S. Feds went in at Waco because
they "had heard of child abuse" (later unsubstantiated). Hicks said
"in that case, why aren't there Abrams tanks flattening half the
Catholic churches in the country?"

Logic doesn't enter into things with governments, particularly
governments that abrogate to themselves extra-territorial powers.

R.