cuban freedom

returning to my boat this morning anchored in Windly bay Islamorada fl. I see this drifting down on my boat. I managed to push it away with my dingy and later tied it to the mangroves. It is obviously a Cuban refugee boat, but I wonder how it got in the Back Bay. I called the Coast Guard they said they had already seen it and yet it was still address

motion30 said:

I called the Coast Guard they said they had already seen it and yet it was still address

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I imagine the CG saw it looooooong before it got to you.

When I called they said about an hour and a halF but they still left it adrift to present a hazard to navigation

In my experience, the CG will do nothing about drifting boats except to announce them on the radio.


I say this because I once called them about a drifting boat and they asked if I could get it and secure it. I declined.


This boat was actually in sight of the USCG base. They could watch it but not come out and secure it.

I explored around the Marquesas, maybe ten miles west of Key West. There were several beached refugee craft there. CG spray paints "USCG" on them after investigating so they don't get repeat calls.

One of them had a complete Hyundai car engine and transmission. Prop shaft coupled to fwd axle CV joint, the other flange locked. Radiator and electric fan.

It apparently worked!!

Ski in NC said:

One of them had a complete Hyundai car engine and transmission. Prop shaft coupled to fwd axle CV joint, the other flange locked. Radiator and electric fan.

It apparently worked!!

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That particular refuge may have a bright future here! We can always use that sort of ingenuity.

Refugee? From what?

I once saw five or six rafts in the Gulfstream. There were so many drifting past Miami that people were going out to fish around them. While trolling past a cluster of them, I saw a pair of large Dophin fish launch themselves into the air followed closely by a very large Marlin. One of the other boats rigged a small dolphin as bait and actually hooked the Marlin. They chased it but it quickly broke off.

The rafts ranged from hollowed out slabs of styrofoam to a powered catamaran made from welded together 55 gallon steel drums. It had a large gasoline engine complete with transmission. There was an 8D battery on the deck to start the engine.

I had seen a picture of that exact raft in the newspaper the day before. The caption said that the Coast Guard had picked up the people off Key West.

It's amazing to me how desperate they are to leave. You have to wonder how many didn't make it.

Probably many do not make it. it is a very sobering thought