Coast Guard question for Jeffe

[House of Mustard]

Hey Jeffe, Ms Fish's questions on the NaNo thread reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask you.

If a ship (personal, not commercial -- a yacht for instance) were to leave an American port and just head off into the ocean, is there anything that he has to do?  Anyone he has to say "goodbye" to?

What about coming into port?  It seems (I'm thinking of the pacific coast here) that there are so many goofy little peirs where you can dock a boat that just anybody could come wandering into the country.  Are all boats that zip up to the US given a stamp of approval by the Coast Guard?  If so, are they all inspected?

[MsFish]

Hmm.  Now that I've said I was going to move my questions up here, I realize that Mad Dr. Jeffe hasn't actually replied to this thread.  

Oops.  

Hey Jeffe--do you mind helping me out with this stuff?  I still have more questions, but you don't need to feel obligated to answer.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Yep,... what do ya need...
I was planning to scan some stuff from my copy of "The Young Sea Officers Sheet Anchor" 1819 if you needed it.

[MsFish]

That'd be awesome.  I need all the help I can get.  

So, here's an ocean question:

This storm...does it actually have to rain?  Cause most of the danger would be from the wind and the waves, right?  In movies and stuff it's always raining, but if the rain doesn't actually add anything important I might want to go without it.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

no, but squalls (the word for a storm at sea) usually have rain. Unless its cold, then they have sleet or snow.

Sleet is really dangerous, as it coats the superstructure with ice, and can sink a ship, or break it in half...

Spray can also cause ice in bad weather.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

/me points out to Jeffe that he never answered HoM's question that started the thread.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Er sorry.

If a ship (personal, not commercial -- a yacht for instance) were to leave an American port and just head off into the ocean, is there anything that he has to do?  Anyone he has to say "goodbye" to?
 
What about coming into port?  It seems (I'm thinking of the pacific coast here) that there are so many goofy little peirs where you can dock a boat that just anybody could come wandering into the country.  Are all boats that zip up to the US given a stamp of approval by the Coast Guard?  If so, are they all inspected?

/me sighs ....

Well, the answer to question 1 is he has to have an annual USCG safety inspection. Which for a private boater means he has enough PFD's (lifejackets) for everyone and working running lights. But besides that no.  
Personally I would tell someone where I was going, Ive had to do too many Search and Rescue missions where the guy just went out fishing with three or four of his buddies and never came back again. We did one for a prominent guy out of Atlantic City, eventually a Helicopter off our ship found some of the wreckage from their boat, but no bodies. But no you dont have to tell anyone where your going. Things you should have on your boat are an EPRB (Emergency Positioning Radio Beacon) and a radio with access to channel 16.
Part two.
No, the vessel would probably have to register with the local harbormaster (who would notify the CG if something were fishy... in theory)
We have the largest coastline of any nation in the world and only about 36,000 active duty Coast Guardsmen. There arent enough cutters to board and inspect everyone, which is why the war on drugs is so hard to fight. Still there are certain high profile vessels we would try to stop and board, boats with 3 or more outboards (called go fasts) boats with lots of deck space, boats from south america etc...

On a day outside of Miami or Los Angeles there are just way too many small craft to look out for.

On the merchant marine side we have a program called MISLE which lists every single merchant ship in the world, along with data about inspections, vessel history violations and the like. Merchant vessels have to clear their entry into port with the USCG Vessel traffic centers in big cities and USCG Captains of the Port in smaller ones. They also need to submit a 48 hour vessel notification of arrival or they will find US ports closed to them.  It forms our boarding criteria. We comply with the UN SOLAS accords (safety of life at sea) which mandates certain types of inspections for the health and safety of the crew and also have lots of strict laws laid out in the CFR's or code of federal regulations.

[JP Dogberry]

Are you sure you have the largest coastline? I'd imagine we'd have more, only because our country is larger, and we have water all the way around, rather than having Canada up north.

[Spriggan]

I would bet money that either Russia or canada have the most coast.  Or Antartica.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

probably he means something like more watched coast. I'm pretty sure Canada has the most coast of anyone, it being the second largest country, and tons and tons of that being islands with funny coasts, which makes for a larger perimeter to area ratio.

But I don't think that Canada or Russia are particularly worried about watching their northern coasts, since they're much less accessible and there isn't much of importance to access anyway.

[Spriggan]

Canada's coast: 202 080 kilometres (stupid metric)
USA's Coast: 19,924  KM
Auziland: 25,760 KM
Antarctica: 17,968 KM
http://www.allyoucanread.com/rank_coastline.asp?r=t

edit: added Antarctica's length since it's not in that link and I wanted to know how long it was.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

We also have a huge chunk of the Pacific as an exclusionary trade including Micronesia, Guam, Saipan, Hawaii, Tonga and all US Territories (like Puerto Rico) Add in the United States patrol area and responsibilities off of Antarctica and exclusionary fishing zones, the responsibility of patrolling the Caribbean, and Alaska and you have in effect the worlds largest Coastline. Patrolled by fewer people than the NYPD in Manhattan.  

[House of Mustard]

Thanks Jeffe, that very much answers my question -- and it was even the answer I hoped for.  (Not that I was hoping the borders were permeable, but it's for my book, and your answer fits what I had in mind...)

[Entsuropi]

I wonder how well the UK coastline is watched... less land after all. But lots of islands :\

According to the adverts, anybody who tries to smuggle stuff in has 3 helicopters and a destoyer plus a couple landing craft full of Marines turn up, courtesy of the navy.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

about as well as ours... you have an awesome navy, but its smaller than the space you need to patrol.

Interestingly the CG is not subject to Posse Cometatus (sp).