SNIP: "you'd believe our waterways are swarming with angry young men carrying machine guns and harrassing boaters for no reason." Well, Pascal, maybe the USCG here in the Great Lakes (Ninth District) has a more aggressive policy that the waters in which you cruise. But up here, they stop us several times a year (and we have a short boating season) and they are fully armed. They may not be angry, but they seem like the traffic cop who has a quota to write X amount of tickets every day. We very much feel harrassed by them. And we do have an "us versus them" mentality. On popular areas of Lake Superior, if you see a CG patrol boat (and you likely will) you very likely will be stopped and boarded. Its happened to us numerous times. And we are near-retirement age geezers in what is definitely not a go-fast boat. I guess the CG is trying to interdict the hoards of waterborne terrorists and drug runners sneaking down out of Canada across the docile waters of Lake Superior. David Sorenson Duluth ____________________________________________________________ Sleep with security. Protect your family with a home security system today. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTLyNNbv8EvCPK6wjlmxB8QZHUQG6cp7cFvog4bHyj8A4ftW2eb0H2/

David, If you truly feel you are being harassed, why not take it up with the Coast Guard leadership instead of complaining about it on a trawler forum? I'm pretty sure none of us here can solve this particular boating problem for you. Here's the web link to District 9's phone list: http://www.uscg.mil/d9/divs.asp I suggest you start by calling the captain in charge of the Response Division. And if that does not prove satisfactory, call the Chief of Staff. If you still get no joy, call your congressman. Now, back to trawler discussions... Best wishes, Bob Deering Juneau, Alaska On 4/4/09 7:00 AM, "David H Sorenson" <davidsorenson@juno.com> wrote: We very much feel harrassed by them. And we do have an "us versus > them" mentality. On popular areas of Lake Superior, if you see a CG > patrol boat (and you likely will) you very likely will be stopped and > boarded. Its happened to us numerous times. And we are near-retirement > age geezers in what is definitely not a go-fast boat. > > David Sorenson > Duluth