I remember when I used to boat back up north in the Great South Bay, those guys used to board me every time they saw me,they just wanted to see what girls myfriends and I picked up at the clubs the night before.They were all good guys. They like looking at ass too, they are human. Figure they are all in there 20's.

Hey mate, why don't you tell the readers here about the Norwegian MV Tampa and about the Pacific Solution before you start talking about police states.

One of the perks of having a small boat :D It only holds 3 Cubans plus me :cool-smiley-011:

Absolutely :cool-smiley-011: learned that at LOTO .
anybody ever not granted permission to come on board ?? down here i've seen the DNR walkin the docks and asking to come abourd and was surprized the guys who said absolutely NOT ...

glad it worked out and enjoy reading about people's experiences...for future reference

I boat in the 1000 Islands in NYS where the border with Canada cuts right through the middle of the islands and we have the guard, NYS Troopers and NYS park police...

My order of preference 1) troopers all day long - great guys not looking to bust balls, then maybe 2) park police - although they have some very interesting powers and do pretty much anything they want including taking your boat, lastly 3) give me the guard - my problem is that they are typically kids (like 18 or so it seems) and trying to prove themselves and if you don't act scared (hard for me to do) they rant and rave "stand back from that" or "stand down" or whatever bs comes to them until they think they have scared you sufficiently. When you have been boating for longer than they have been living its simply annoying as hell. And as far as the guns drawn...what are you afraid of my 8 year old kid on board???

quick story - the head of the antique boat museum got approached by the guard while in his wooden boat at night with the rollers coming in and they said "stand down permission to come aboard" and he said OK follow me to my dock as I am not letting our boats come close with these waves...and with that just ignored them and went on his way through one of the more difficult shoal navigation driving tests (especially at night)...and the guard just peeled off apparently afraid of the rocks! hee hee hee

Now the guard sits with their lights off to nab drinkers and generally harass people (my opinion)...talk about a safety hazard on the water at night with their lights off...how about practice what they preach!!! And for that matter just profile the "bad guys"!

Gotta love 18 year-olds with fire-arms, wearing Jack-boots, who (in actuality) have the power of prosecutor, judge and jury on the water.

Even if your innocent and polite, they can tie you up for hours simply on their say-so. You have zero recourse.

No choice but to kiss the little fu#k-tard's asses.

Great guys when they're saving lives, but what's the deal with hassling civilians?

Bored and macho, and armed.

What a combination! :(

Same thing happened to me when cruising around Lake Erie - going from Peele Island back to PIB and I was stopped. Guys were real cool.

My nephew is a Coastie stationed at Barneget Bay, NJ. Cap knows him. We see the RIB's in Galveston Bay all the time with 20 year olds and machine guns. Glad to see them. They are just doing their job. We wave and talk to them every chance we get when they stop in our local on the water restaurants. If the immigration, smuggling, and Homeland Security issues were not necessary maybe they wouldn't need to stop and "hassle you". Why blame them for the realities of what is going on in our country. Be glad they are there protecting you and your boat and I am sure one of them will be the first to jump in to save one of our sorry azzes when the we get in trouble.

Motoring down the Intracoastal from Shooter's was asked to pull in the Port Everglades Coast Guard Station. Docked, showed registration and safety equipment and received a boarding form and passing grade. Not sure why they stopped us, but the speedboat behind me with the bikini-clad girls was made to linger while they searched for "eye candy"

Yep, you got me, we too are becoming one...so I don't want to appear to be picking on the usa.

However, we still don't have retina eye scans and thumb prints when you come to australia to visit.

I'm always complaining about how over the top we are becoming...it is just a matter of time before we equal the usa.

As another guy just wrote "its 1984 knocking on your door".

Just the other day I was stopped for a breath test, then was informed it was a drug test, then the cop took the swap and my licence into the booze bus. I thought about it later and thought "this guy could have taken my DNA and used the swab/licence to record it".