<Dave Legrow wrote: Not to worry -> I beg to differ with Dave as shown by the recent initiatives of Homeland Security to study the feasibility and pubic opinion in US waters of AIS systems or similar for all craft. It sound incredulous but I see this as part of the move towards better "port security". Whether right or wrong we'll all be part of it sooner than we'd like to think. Can't have all those boaters running around without "big brother watching"! As you all know we have one of the first Class "B" AIS transponders on Swan Song. More for our own easy identification of course/speed/name to other ship traffic which we encounter. The Port Authorities/Customs folks haven't an idea of what AIS is when we talk to them in the Caribbean. Yet in Venezuela they use it extensively to control all the tankers and other traffic in the major ports. If the US mandates it then it will have to be adopted by the rest of the countries as it is forced on them just like the cruise ship regulations regarding ports of call and their port security. It used to be that islanders could go onto the piers and intermingle with the ships crew and passengers. Now all the ports must be secured and have controlled access and in water patrols available while the ship is in. If they don't comply with this US regulation then a cruise ship that calls at an unsecured port cannot return to the US until it has been "sanitized" by some agency of the US. So all these small and generally poor countries/islands have had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring their ports into compliance with US law, not international law! These funds came for the pockets of poor people in the form of taxes. The cruise lines didn't fund them nor did the US. So don't for a moment think that the tide isn't coming in in this area. If you look far down the river you can see the tide line and it is moving toward you. Most folks can't see it as they are too impatient to observe it for a long enough time to realize it is moving in their direction. They only notice when the land they were sitting on is "suddenly" an island surrounded by water. Only a matter of time before all the water craft will be squawking and be easily identified. What and how this will improve anyone's security doesn't really seem to matter. Sort of like Mike's spec's on his new electronic anchor. They read like a dream but it doesn't really sound very practical in the real world.....sorry Mike ;-) As an aside the current clearing in form in Antigua has a question as to what countries you have visited in the last 6 weeks. They don't seem to use this info, when I asked the Customs Officer as there wasn't enough space to write them all, as he didn't care. However someone somewhere thought this was a good question to have on the form so there it is ...in a 6 part carbon!. If the same person was aware of AIS he might ask for a copy of you travels for the last 6 weeks in digital format. Much easier and already available. I don't wish to trigger this person's mind but someone will and it will become part of the clearance procedure some dark day....sooner rather than later.....if not here then somewhere else, IMHO. The drug trade which passes thru this region from the producers in South America to the consumers in Europe and North America can't be stopped or even curtailed apparently. We're talking tons of cocaine a month just "passing thru" here to its destination. A ton of C-4 sure would be easy to get in...just package it in plastic wrappers and include it with the coke shipment! As always YMMV.... Dave & Nancy Swan Song Roughwater 58 Caribbean Cruise '07