Not the nightmare scenario that Bernie ran into but I'm still confused as to how to clear in properly. After visiting with friends for a few days we departed the Grand Manan area at first light in dense fog making a direct shot for Bar Harbor. Until recently your choice for customs ports in Downeast Maine were Eastport, Lubec or Bar Harbor. While Jonesport, a more convenient midway location, is officially listed we've been told that causing a customs officer to drive there would probably result in a unpleasant inspection experience. In order to clear customs by boat in eastern Maine you must first place a call to a center in Houlton located in far northern Maine right in the middle of potato country. I suppose the call center's location is some sort of federal jobs creation effort for an economically depressed part of the state. So we give our sticker number, passport info and vessel documentation information to the officer at the other end and they forward that info to the local Eastport, Lubec or Bangor office, the people who will be conducting the actual inspection. By 1700 we were still a few miles east of Schoodic Point and at least three or four hours out from Bar Harbor. I called the Houlton office and explained our situation to the pleasant woman officer on the other end. She informs me that we can now also clear in at Northeast Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Belfast but they, like Bar Harbor are only open during normal business hours. I asked if it would be OK if we anchored somewhere for the night and proceed into port the next morning. She said that would be fine as long as we didn't go ashore and to call back in the morning with an ETA. We made it to Little Cranberry Island right at sunset and grabbed a guest mooring. The next morning around 0800 I called Houlton again, explained our situation and said that we would like to clear in at NEH. The officer at the other end says: "You did what?" and proceeds to tell me that I shouldn't have spent the night at anchor in US waters, and he would have to speak with the woman officer that I spoke with the night before, etc. So I gave him my cell # and he told me to wait for a call from the officer in Bangor who would be conducting the actual inspection. Forty five minutes later I get a call form Bangor and I'm greeted with another "you did what?" So I ask the guy how I should go about this properly and I'm told that we would discuss it when he got there to do the inspection, to proceed into NEH and wait for a call. Now I'm the kind of person who likes to follow the rules, keep a low profile and try not to attract unnecessary attention to myself from people who have the authority to make my life unpleasant. We proceed into NEH, get a mooring and wait a couple more hours until we get a call from yet another customs officer who tells us he's ten minutes away and to meet him at the Harbormasters office with our passports, ships papers, etc. We go ashore, meet a pleasant young officer who checks our paperwork and welcomes us back to the US. Wanting to get it right the next time I ask him what we should have done differently. He replied that we had done everything right. So I'm still at a loss as to how to go about returning home correctly.