[Jeff Higgins]

Thanks guys. I find this all very interesting. I just wonder how the authorities have continued to operate in this manner in this day and age. To my admittedly less than knowledgable self, this strikes me very much as the Constitutional and moral equivalent of being pulled over in your car any time the authorities damn well please, under the auspices of a "safety check".

I wonder how the two have grown so far apart. Seems to me that the greater "danger" lies in the operation of our land going vehicles, at least as far as the danger they present to others. Yet we enjoy the absolute right to travel unimpeded in those, with some sort of probable cause being required before we can be stopped. No stopping just to check. Interesting that that seems to be a given in the nautical world, and even more interesting that it appears to be accepted. Why the difference?