A safety check. I was hove to off the entrance waiting for the tide to turn. They did check my state registration papers and my license. I even gave them my passport to try to speed things up but they spent time with those documents. They checked for my holding tank, flares, PFDs (two obvious strapped in my towed dinghy) and the oil spill placcard.

They gave me one of those new overboard trash placard things which I've stuck on my trash bin. Flares were outdated by less than a year, so they let that go. They were nice kids.

Best of all I got a get of jail free document to wave, if anyone else in a uniform comes near me for the rest of the year.