Sir, your experience is OBE!

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:wjs_d.67021$SF.4096@lakeread08...
Well the Canadians are pretty hacked right now and in a way I don't blame
them. I have a feeling you will be surprised but it is true that under the
directive the USCG or any other federal law enforcement agency CAN seize a
Canadian boat in international waters after transiting US waters that shows
any indication of entering Cuban waters. It can be done and I have a bit
of personal experience with the powers of the USCG that proves it..

I was the only American crew on a French flagged Beneteau enroute from
Martinique to Port Antonio, Jamaica in February 1998. We were clearly in
international waters a little over 20 miles south of Isla Beata on the south
coast of the DR when about 2AM we were hailed by a USCG cutter. We were
then boarded, searched and our log book and navigation notes and charts
examined. The skipper was justifiably upset but atypically for a Frenchman
decided that discretion was the better part of valor considering the cannon
on the cutters foredeck trained on us. I thought the CG was outside its
purview myself so when I got home I did a little research. It turns out
that the USCG can and has seized foreign flagged vessels in international
waters "of interest to the United States" when it is in violation of US laws
or directives. If any contraband had been found they definitely would have
taken the boat into custody. By simple extension a Canadian boat runs a
similar risk.

In short, a Canadian vessel enroute to or returning from Cuba may not enter
US territorial waters without exposing itself to the possibility of seizure
either in US or international waters. That includes after intermediate
stops in the Bahamas, Hispanola and Cayman Islands.

The directive has only one purpose. To keep the older Cuban community in
Florida in the Republican camp.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com