In due respect, at this time of year dense fog banks do occur quite suddenly
around the San Juan islands.

The point I was trying to make was simply that a good sailor must always
repeat always keep the safety of his vessel and crew first and foremost,
irrespective of bureaucratic rules. And if you read my posting, the local
Coast Guard crew confirmed the safety first rule.

You are of course free to do whatever you wish to do - and in your case I
wonder what you would do in the situation I described.


"Bill Kearney" wrote in message
...
The whole notion that it's somehow any sort of realistic risk. Sure,
there's all sorts of things that "could go wrong" but in reality they very
seldom do. Seems it's just fashionable lately to scream like Chicken
Little
about so-called risks because of increased security procedures. I find it
rather tiresome.

"claus" wrote in message
. ..
What hype?

"Bill Kearney" wrote in message
t...
And I can not help wondering if you get arrested if you run your
vessel
aground before you check with Customs :-)

Why bother worrying? It's far easier to just flail the hype on a
newsgroup
instead. Yeesh.

You are of course free to do whatever you wish to do - and in your case I
wonder what you would do in the situation I described.

Just like the Coasties said, take whatever measures are best to maintain the
safety of the passengers and vessel. Like any other time safety conflicts
with regulations I'll take the risk of being ALIVE for the bureaucratic
untangling. And without hyping the so-called 'risk'.

It's not about being sheep, by any stretch, it's about balance. Being free
to travel, accepting the overlapping issues. Being free to speak without
being silenced by insults. Being responsible to call those flailing hype to
task. But hey, feel free to be cowering assholes, it's a talent a good
number of you seem to have honed to a fine edge.

This conundrum has come up in aviation as well. The cases there have
been very simple and the same principle will probably be applied to
boat border crossings.

The FAA says, "Put safety first or we take your license."

Customs says, "Put customs clearance first or we fine you $5000."

Two different agencies, two different agendas, two different penalty
structures. The great thing about this being a free country is that
we get to choose which horn to get gored by.

The nice thing about the USCG being the gatekeepers is that they have
an institutional bias towards safety first. Once customs gets
involved, or perhaps someone in the USCG that came up post 911, you'll
probably get screwed whatever you do.

Custom's attitude will be, "What, you didn't listen to the weather
report and assure yourself that you could complete the trip to the
port of entry? That's what the $5000 fine is for, to make you more
careful."

--

Roger Long