We were on passage from Bermuda, finishing up a 5-month voyage from New Zealand to Maine via Cape Horn. The safety check was going just fine until they asked to see our life jackets. They were in a bag stuffed in a small cubby behind a hanging locker and it took about 10 minutes of struggle to pull them out. We had just sailed 12,000 miles across the roughest oceans and had perhaps the most seaworthy boat and gear on the East Coast and yet they were writing us up for improper life jacket stowage! It seemed a bit ironic, though in retrospect perhaps we should have had them more accessible