Ticket for no whistle in dinghy??

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

No... military bases. Military signage. Towns celebrating military connections. Banners, posters, pictures of fallen soldiers. Military vehicles on the highways, on the streets. Vehicles, planes, and yes along the coast, ships. It just felt like a common, if not constant, presence.

As a Canadian I'm probably under-exposed to this sort of thing. After all, we're not know for having a large military. It just felt weird seeing all the military paraphernalia.

But this is a minor side line to the real point, which is that there seemed to be a lot of police presence -- much more than military.

I think it's a good observation(s). There is a high degree of 'military worship' in the country. IMO it started after 911, but maybe it's just the pendulum swinging the other way from the Vietnam era when the military was the target of loathing.

As to the police presence I guess I don't see it / am used to it. I would blame that on the (failed) 'war on drugs'.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by garyfdl

I think it's a good observation(s). There is a high degree of 'military worship' in the country. IMO it started after 911, but maybe it's just the pendulum swinging the other way from the Vietnam era when the military was the target of loathing.

As to the police presence I guess I don't see it / am used to it. I would blame that on the (failed) 'war on drugs'.

The percentage of the population in Active and Reserve military service is almost 3 times higher in the US than in Canada.


In the US, it's about 1.6% of national "available manpower"

[sanibel sailor]

Recently visited Iceland, where there are statues of statesmen and writers, not military heroes. No security,not even a fence around the Prime Minister's office building. Very different feel.

[AA3JY]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

No... military bases. Military signage. Towns celebrating military connections. Banners, posters, pictures of fallen soldiers. Military vehicles on the highways, on the streets. Vehicles, planes, and yes along the coast, ships. It just felt like a common, if not constant, presence.

As a Canadian I'm probably under-exposed to this sort of thing. After all, we're not know for having a large military. It just felt weird seeing all the military paraphernalia.

But this is a minor side line to the real point, which is that there seemed to be a lot of police presence -- much more than military.

Yep..I will quaruntee you will be shadowed by military escort vessels with high powered weapons aboard when passing by Kings Bay naval sub base, St. Mary, Ga along that portion of the the AICW...

And now hearing unconfirmed reports of Ga. DNR police presence in Ga’s prohibited anchoring areas of Georgia..

[MicHughV]

I heard the the term " Oshkosh" mentioned here....ok, slightly off topic, but.....

My younger brother was an avid small plane pilot and convinced me I should go with him to their yearly " fly in"

I have to say, spending almost a week there, I have never seen so many aircraft of every description, many coming from overseas, yep, people actually flying cessna's and other small planes from Europe and even Africa to be there, not only that, but masses of people camping out in tents, RV's, hotels, etc...it was quite the spectacle to say the least.

Interestingly, there was a waterbody nearby, that hosted all the float planes and other amphibious craft....

Finally, there was the spectacle of home builders flying every conceivable type of garage made craft.

Everyone just getting along with one another. Shame this camaradie does not always extend to the marine environment.

[CaptnBry]

The USCG text is a Sound Signaling Device last time I was checked for a dinghy 'whistle ' ( about 20 years ago). That day my airhorn had rusted silent and the officer grinned. I quickly banged an SOS on the drum-like fuel tank and 'passed'. Its really about the SOPs thier Sergeant gave them in the day's briefing, IMHO.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Oh this is where it gets even better.

No fine amount on the violation. The only way to find out the fine is to mail in your guilty plea and get a bill sent. Otherwise, plead not guilty and travel back to the town and go stand trial.

Chotu!

This is hilarious! What IS it with you? You must've been born under an ill-omened star.

I say go stand trial. Are Courts still closed where you are? Lob that ball back into their court for wasting your time...

Hey Guys... little digression:

Do you have one (safety) item you repeatedly forget? Our Canadian regs mandate an oar in a dinghy - which I often forget to check for...

However, just by the fact that it's the thing I most forget, it's gone to the head of the list. I say to myself, "what is that thing I always forget?" which reminds me, "Oh yeah, where's the oar..."

LittleWing77

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by AA3JY

Yep..I will quaruntee you will be shadowed by military escort vessels with high powered weapons aboard when passing by Kings Bay naval sub base, St. Mary, Ga along that portion of the the AICW...

And now hearing unconfirmed reports of Ga. DNR police presence in Ga’s prohibited anchoring areas of Georgia..

When I went by there a year or so ago, it was rent a cops and no machine guns. Now hopefully they are present, but likely not on guard. A great many of the Military basic guard duties are very often rent a cops, like the guards at the gate to get on a base. Standing guard is really a waste of manpower, there is almost never that many Military Police to man guard 24/7.
You would be surprised to know that it’s exceptionally unusual for the weapons you see to be armed, I have been in War zones (Bosnia) where the deployed Soldiers were not armed. The Leaders live in fear of the backlash of what would happen if a Soldier ever shot a Civilian, remember mostly these are often kids, not seasoned Cops with 30 years of experience.

Matter of fact an entire Military operation was shut down cause a Civilian was shot, we used to surveil our Southern border using Military troops and technology, and once after being fired on several times a US Marine returned fire, once and shot the person shooting at him, and that was the end of US Military on the border. There had been incidents leading up to this and the drug Cartels were seeking to get JTF-6 shut down of course
JTF-6 went on from the 80’s to 1997 I believe, no Military personal were ever in contact with any Civilian, we were only used to surveil. It was actually a good training mission for us as Screen likes etc were one of our missions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Task_Force_North

[AA3JY]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

When I went by there a year or so ago, it was rent a cops and no machine guns. Now hopefully they are present, but likely not on guard. A great many of the Military basic guard duties are very often rent a cops, like the guards at the gate to get on a base. Standing guard is really a waste of manpower, there is almost never that many Military Police to man guard 24/7.
You would be surprised to know that it’s exceptionally unusual for the weapons you see to be armed, I have been in War zones (Bosnia) where the deployed Soldiers were not armed. The Leaders live in fear of the backlash of what would happen if a Soldier ever shot a Civilian, remember mostly these are often kids, not seasoned Cops with 30 years of experience.

Matter of fact an entire Military operation was shut down cause a Civilian was shot, we used to surveil our Southern border using Military troops and technology, and once after being fired on several times a US Marine returned fire, once and shot the person shooting at him, and that was the end of US Military on the border. There had been incidents leading up to this and the drug Cartels were seeking to get JTF-6 shut down of course
JTF-6 went on from the 80’s to 1997 I believe, no Military personal were ever in contact with any Civilian, we were only used to surveil. It was actually a good training mission for us as Screen likes etc were one of our missions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Task_Force_North

My comments and observations are fairly current as our boat is located at Rocky’s boat yard, along with 300 of our closest friends , which is located just south of the Sub bases fence line...

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Chotu!

This is hilarious! What IS it with you? You must've been born under an ill-omened star.

I say go stand trial. Are Courts still closed where you are? Lob that ball back into their court for wasting your time...

Hey Guys... little digression:

Do you have one (safety) item you repeatedly forget? Our Canadian regs mandate an oar in a dinghy - which I often forget to check for...

However, just by the fact that it's the thing I most forget, it's gone to the head of the list. I say to myself, "what is that thing I always forget?" which reminds me, "Oh yeah, where's the oar..."

LittleWing77

I honestly don’t know. Sometimes I think I’m the Frank Grimes of life. I keep going. But if it can go wrong, it will.

If I was local to them I’d waste their time. Sure. However it would take me several days and many times the fine amounts I’m sure to go there and appear in person. So, they win, as usual.

[LittleWing77]

Here's a cool story about HMCG - Her Majesty's Coast Guard.

We were sailing in the Solent in a Westerly Fulmar (32') and the Coast Guard was conducting helicopter lifesaving drills, and we were contacted to offer their officer(s) - and us - practice boarding a sailing vessel underway. We were directed to maintain course and sail (Can't remember specifically - winds maybe 4s or 5s? We were sailing to windward and were well heeled over). They hovered over us; they dipped the safety line; then manoeuvred so we could catch and not foul their transfer line in our rig... then one guy transferred down, the helicopter moved away so he could have a 5-minute direct chat about procedures while sitting in our cockpit, then he waved the copter back and we did the whole thing in reverse.

We were a sail-training vessel, so perhaps this was an unusual opportunity, but it was SO COOL.

They got the practice and we got to see what would happen when such a rescue is conducted under duress.

Cheers, LittleWing77

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I heard the the term " Oshkosh" mentioned here....ok, slightly off topic, but.....

My younger brother was an avid small plane pilot and convinced me I should go with him to their yearly " fly in"

I have to say, spending almost a week there, I have never seen so many aircraft of every description, many coming from overseas, yep, people actually flying cessna's and other small planes from Europe and even Africa to be there, not only that, but masses of people camping out in tents, RV's, hotels, etc...it was quite the spectacle to say the least.

Interestingly, there was a waterbody nearby, that hosted all the float planes and other amphibious craft....

Finally, there was the spectacle of home builders flying every conceivable type of garage made craft.

Everyone just getting along with one another. Shame this camaradie does not always extend to the marine environment.

That's the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Fly-In, their national convention. I live 15 miles to the south, have to listen to their planes flying 1500 feet directly over my house, for a week, at a rate of about one every 2 minutes, from about 7 in the morning 'til about sunset (if the weather is clear). Unfortunately the FAA frowns on firing firework rockets at them to change their flight path.

That "waterbody" is Lake Winnebago, my sailing ground. 30 miles long, 9 wide at the widest point. The seaplane base is in a backwater by 'the Jesuit's' and just off US hwy 45.

Unfortunately, due to COVID, the event was cancelled this year. That meas about a $170 million economic 'hit' to area communities.

[BlackHeron]

A few weeks back going past the sub base we were "escorted" by a larger RiB center console patrol boat arned with pintle-mount machine gun with lights flashing all over the top of the arch. First time for us in 4 trips going past it.

I thought at first that they were USCG or juiced-up local wildlife or sheriff LEO's with paramilitary equipment from homeland security. Figured with all the flashing lights rapidly vectoring in on us directly that they were pulling us over.

We throttled way back to idle and I went below to get our paperwork ready. They eventually came over their PA after a few minutes of us just bobbing there and asked if we though they were pulling us over.

Well, duh?

Nope, they were just "escorting us" by the base. Then why all the flashing lights? How about a hail on VHF or something? Not the first time we were shadowed by patrol boats but never with flashing lights on. With a fast vector in at high speed it didn't feel to me like an "escort" and I really don't want to be riddled with lead by a machine gun, so I figured stopping was the prudent course of action.

[AA3JY]

Originally Posted by BlackHeron

A few weeks back going past the sub base we were "escorted" by a larger RiB center console patrol boat arned with pintle-mount machine gun with lights flashing all over the top of the arch. First time for us in 4 trips going past it.

I thought at first that they were USCG or juiced-up local wildlife or sheriff LEO's with paramilitary equipment from homeland security. Figured with all the flashing lights rapidly vectoring in on us directly that they were pulling us over.

We throttled way back to idle and I went below to get our paperwork ready. They eventually came over their PA after a few minutes of us just bobbing there and asked if we though they were pulling us over.

Well, duh?

Nope, they were just "escorting us" by the base. Then why all the flashing lights? How about a hail on VHF or something? Not the first time we were shadowed by patrol boats but never with flashing lights on. With a fast vector in at high speed it didn't feel to me like an "escort" and I really don't want to be riddled with lead by a machine gun, so I figured stopping was the prudent course of action.

Look familiar?

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by AA3JY

Look familiar?

What is that ?