....Okay, I'm not done.

I went back to where things started to go wrong.

Now Invert the selection (Select->Invert), create a new BLACK layer called “Land Mask” and fill the selection with white. Now save the selection to a Channel (Select->Save to Channel) and rename the channel to “Land Mask”. This will be used a fit bit later.
There's where things might have went haywire for me.

Before, I created a transparent layer and filled the selection with white. This time around, I created a layer with a Layer Fill Type set to background color (which is black). Then, I filled the inverted selection (the landmasses) with white.

Now it looks more like Rob's. Here's a screen shot: http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...URPS/mask2.jpg

The only issue I see is that my coastline is completely razor straight and flat...

But, I want to see how this goes so I'm not going to worry about that right now.