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rammed:by the customs & border patrol

30K views 165 replies 57 participants last post by  canucksailorguy 
#1 ·
In cruising,you are bound to be checked out by the authorities,and i did not mind at all.they are professionals doing the job of protecting the waters,infrastructure and other boaters, ect.. in my @4000 mile trip, i had 11 encounters.; 1-sheriff, 1-harbor police, 2-parks & wildlife, 3- coast guards, & 4- customs & border patrol zodiacs.sometimes a full search & records check is made,others just a welfare and to make sure all the required safety gear is on board.my last contact was in belize city with the coast guard.while docked there for a week,we became good friends,and was given a tour of their zodiac,"a gift" from the u.s.( $ 500.000.00) in u.s. dollars.anyways,the encounter, i will not soon forget, occurred on my way back through galveston. i was moving right along well heeled over on a reach,when a c & b patrol boat approached from astern;"we are going to board you" they yelled.i nodded my head in affirmative,gave them the "ok"sign, and waved my arm with a "come on" gesture.they came up to the highside starboard quarter and one guy jumped onto the c-22's bench seat.then their zodiac hit my corner and spun me 90 degrees to starboard instantly.a combination of the zodiacs momentum pushing on my beam,and my keel acting as a brake,made theirs ride up onto and roll mine over,so that a huge amount of water came over the port rail.the guy that had jumped into my boat was now scrambling back onto his bow,thinking that my boat was going down.just as quickly as this had happened,they got theirs off of mine and she righted herself and i got back on course and to speed,whilest the scuppers drained.and again they approached,"we are going to board you",i gestured and yelled " come to the portside,low side".they did,two guys jump on ,we shake hands and smile.they ask me to slow the boat down, i release the jib and the search was on...and then they were gone. 2 b cont...
 
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#65 · (Edited)
I agree. I asked a Coast Guard friend of mine, who's done hundreds of boardings, and his reply was : if the Coasties want you to change anything about your speed and course, they will say so -- don't try to help them until you're given instructions. It's safer for everybody that way, and any quick maneuvers could be misinterpreted as evasion.

He also told me that they used to hail: "Come about and heave to." But they so frequently got quizzical stares from the modern crop of racers ("heave to? how do ya do that?") that they gave up on those instructions.
 
#7 ·
I have only been boarded once and they did request that I maintain speed and course. This brings up an episode where a friend of mine was partipating in an offshore race and had the helm at night when all of a sudden a zodiac approached from the pitch black of the night. He refused to grant them permission to board and wanted to see more ID. They then disappeard into the black of night only to return with some more ID. He was still not satisfied and even when they pointed to the zodiac with the coast guard markings he told them that meant nothing. He told them if they wanted to board that the mother ship would have to light up. It did, but then after all of this going on I expected him to tell me that they did a very detailed inspection after he granted them permission to board. However no inspection took place and they just let him continue with the race without even boarding.
 
#14 ·
We've been boarded once while out, and were instructed to maintain course and speed. Another time we were boarded by the US Border Patrol without us being aboard according to our trusty neighbors.

Cocaine Cowboy. Gotta love that one. Maybe I should rename my boat Mary Jane and see if our boardings increase.
 
#16 · (Edited)
I belive him. The boardings are a lot more frequent in border states, ie: Fla. Texas. It's hard for bay sailors in the middle states to fathom what it's like down here sometimes. It's a different world. And I get boarded frequently at night or at least aproached in the lower Key's, they alway's ask you to maintain course and speed, we were boarded 100 miles south of the Caymans in the middle of night by a coast guard group stationed on a navy destroyer, we still were asked to maintain course and speed. There are people actually out there traveling around in small sail boat's,I think 2bb should stand for 2 big balls, looking forward to part 2.
 
#19 ·
I belive him. The boardings are a lot more frequent in border states, ie: Fla. Texas. It's hard for bay sailors in the middle states to fathom what it's like down here sometimes. It's a different world. And I get boarded frequently at night or at east aproached in the lower Key's, they alway's ask you to maintain course and speed, we were boarded 100 miles south of the Caymans in the middle of night by a coast guard group stationed on a is navy destroyer, we still were asked to maintain course and speed. There are people actually out there traveling around in small sail boat's,I think 2bb should stand for 2 big balls, looking forward to part 2.
Yeah, we'll, we have a lot more miles than that and hardly anything. It has nothing to do with kids hanging upside down from to boom begging them, "hey... Board us, please! Is that a real gun? Do you have a boating license? Hey, how fast does your boat go? Can I come aboard? Do you burn a lot of gas? Hey, wanna see my Lego project? Hey!!! Where are you going? Board us!!! Please!!!!!"
 
#21 ·
The single handling dude is more suspect, especially right on the border, like the Marquesas, where the border patrol, DEA, coast Guard, marine patrol, sheriff and Home Land all have boat's and are on constant patrol. Same for South Texas. A single dude on a small barebones boat is more likely to have what they are looking for than a family on a nice Catalina. Come to think of it, it's a good cover Brian, I know a guy in Mexico if you need a little extra W.A.M. ( WALKING AROUND MONEY) wink wink just kidding......but it's true....not really:)....well.............no I don't know any one.
 
#22 ·
well,you can "belize" it or not.it's a free country.i sailed for adventure,and i found it.for solitude & found,for nature and to get better at sailing.check.to chuckles:ie. "complaining"? i said in post, "i did not mind it at all". to bljo; ie "boarded 11 times"? i said "11 encounters" in fact,i was boarded 3 times.twice by the b&c and once by the cg.the cg was a welfare check and to make sure i had a noise making device,pfd & throw cushion.ie. to "atracting attention". i think that one is not used to seeing a 22' cruiser.also having a swing keel & kick up rudder,allows one to go into areas that a fixed keel cruiser can not. to cruisedad; i can't disagree on the "crazy" coment.i left tampa on a whim.i was getting tired of the icw, and had not got the big adventure yet.hence,belize."i think i can make it,let's go for it!'...oh,and so you don't extrapolate anymore out of my quotes, the "let's" means me, myself, and i, and the boat. untill the next thread...i've got a 2 maybe 3 more. ...2 b ...
 
#23 · (Edited)
I Belize ya dude, I sailed a 28 foot centerboard sloop non-stop from Key Largo to Mexico and on down to Belize in 1990 when I was barley 20 years old. The Belize defense force boarded me, had a laugh and left, later they helped me un step and step my mast, and the U.S Coasties boarded me in the Harbour leaving Belize out by English Cay. Northern seasonal weekend sailors don't get it. Keep the stories coming man, I like 'em.
 
#24 ·
What I'd like to know is - what is your COAST guard doing patrolling & boarding even American boats in Belize and the Caymans?

Did the USA extend is economic zone a tad while we weren't looking?
 
#26 · (Edited)
They're there, omnipresent. First thing you see when you sail in to Cartegenia is a U.S. Navy Destroyer anchored in the middle of the harbour and A Coastie Launch Hanging on it's Davits. In the regan and then Bush senior years, they would swab your cabin top with q tip to look for weed rezin, in case you were smoking a doobee (sp?) in side. Possession. We had t_shirts made up that said "U.S. coast guard.. one seed is all they need to make you bleed. They were cutting peoples boat's up with chain saw's back then.
 
#25 ·
LOL. Nothing like a five year old to hasten a safety inspection. Trust me on this, best insurance to have if your flares are expired IMHO. We’ve been boarded four times in the past forty years. All by the USCG and all either motoring or motor sailing. On time we were following a StFYC sail boat when returning from the Delta. As he got close to the Carquinez Bridge he quickly hoisted his sails and we thought “that was odd, there’s no wind”. Sure enough the local bridge troll zoomed out from behind a bridge pier, drove past the StFYC boat and boarded us. My friends tell me that teenage daughters are a magnet for boardings.

The USCG can board an American boat anytime, anywhere. The US has treaties with the Caribbean nations for drug enforcement giving them the authority to board pretty much everyone down there. With everyone fearful about piracy and the drug wars in Central America, It’s kind of nice to know that the Coasties are at hand if you should need them.
 
#30 ·
I dunno, I kind of figured that the COAST guard would do exactly that and your Navy would patrol beyond your coastal economic zone. I guess what you actually have is two Navies, junior & senior.

Call me naive. :rolleyes:
 
#31 ·
US Coast guard has agreements with most Caribbean and most S. American countries, and many 'overseas' countries. probably except Cuba and now Venez.

The prime commission of the USCG is/was interdiction of smuggling of contraband and 'revenue' avoidance, only added lifesaving as a prime directive with the absorption and inclusion of the US Life Saving Service in ~1890s.

USCG was under the Treasury Dept. until the recent change to administration by the Dept of Homeland Security.
Can, or used to be, available to be 'transferred' to Defense Dept. (Navy) during war time.

If US flagged, a vessel can be boarded 'anywhere' by Navy or USCG.
 
#39 ·
Because that's where we live, The Key's, I have a House in Guanaja Honduras, and I deliver boats all over the Caribbean, Been living here my whole life, working commercial tug's, sailboat's, dive boat's. I work harbour tug's in and out of Miami the Bahama's. That's why I supose. Funny thing is your avitar is a happy pirate shooting a cartoon cannon.
 
#40 ·
JonB, there used to be some serious and longstanding inviolate separations between 'administrative agency" "police" and "military" in the US. I say used to be, because after the nonsense of 9/11, the so-called Patriot Act, the creation of DHS...what we've got now is a true disgrace that some ofus would call outright treasonous because of the way it tramples our laws.

As Rich said, the USCG used to be a unique "dual purpose" organization. They were an administrative agency in time of peace, and only after a formal Congressional Declaration of War could they be transferred to the USN to become a fifth military agency.

Among other things, this allowed the USCG to perform domestic duties (as in after Katrina) when the US military forces were arguably banned from doing so, by law. Thta law was quietly (one might say furtively and secretly) modified in 2007 to the extent of being practically repealed. So once again...Aw, you don't really want to know what a *ing quagmire our leaders have made of things down here.

Short version of it? "US zero, Al-Queda Won."

Ain't the US of A anymore.
 
#42 ·
In Canada my boat is a private residence, and it is illegal for anyone to come aboard uninvited, without a search warrant. To get one they have to present some pretty convincing evidence to a judge,and that can be challenged. I would never allow anyone aboard . Offshore, some sharp things sticking out, take care of any uninvited inflatables. I once ripped open a US coastguard inflatable that way. The harbour security guard said they would be scrubbing toilets for a while, for that screw up.
I wouldn't cruise any country which allows a bunch of macho foreigners to enforce their own law in their country.
 
#53 ·
In Canada my boat is a private residence, and it is illegal for anyone to come aboard uninvited, without a search warrant.
Don't test that while underway - you're only a residence when the hook is dropped or you're tied up (dropping for lunch and having a beer doesn't count either - has to be you're parked for the night).

Under way you're a vehicle and they can board & inspect.
 
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