MossBack: "Forgive me if this has been covered. Does anyone make eye glasses for the purpose of scanning long distances for long periods of time along shorelines or whatever? I know that binoculars can serve the same purpose, but are heavy must be held continually to do the same job."
This would be great, but that binocular/monocular/telescope functionality isn't physically possible with a single lens per eye. You need a multi-element system (at least 2 lenses or mirrors separated by some distance) in order to get an upright, magnified image of something in the distance.
You can mount a pair of binoculars on a tripod to make them steady and hands-free (this is a nice trick for stargazing). Some binoculars have a 1/4-20 mounting screw like the one on the bottom of a camera, or you can just rig something up with a strap. The tripod/head would have some sort of panning functionality for scanning the horizon.