Offshore News Story!
 

I can't believe no one has posted this yet!!!


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../odd_cubans_dc


MIAMI (Reuters) - The 12 Cubans who tried to sail a 1951 Chevy truck from the communist-ruled island to the United States got no marks from U.S. authorities for their creativity.


Since Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s 1959 revolution, Cubans have tried to leave the Caribbean island on rudimentary rafts, on giant truck inner tubes, in stolen boats and planes, even by windsurfer.


But no one remembers anyone attempting the 90-mile crossing of the Florida Straits in a floating flatbed truck with 55-gallon (250-litre) drums strapped to its sides, tires still in place, a propeller attached to its drive shaft and a driver behind the wheel.


"We've seen surfboards, pieces of Styrofoam, bathtubs, refrigerators. But never an automobile," Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Doss said on Thursday.


A U.S. government plane spotted the bright-green truck chugging through the water at 8 mph (13 kph) on July 16 about 40 miles south of Key West, just over halfway from Cuba to Florida. The Cubans had fashioned a makeshift, bright yellow shelter on the truck's bed.


"The truck's engine was actually running, propelling it through the water," Doss said.


The Coast Guard picked up the 12 Cubans from the vintage vehicle and took them back to the island on Sunday.


The truck was deemed a hazard to navigation and was sent to the bottom.


Under the U.S. immigration policy known as "wet foot, dry foot," Cubans who manage to set foot on U.S. soil are usually allowed to stay while those stopped at sea are routinely sent back to Cuba.

This was on the news this morning and it is quite a site with the oil drums lining the sides and yes, somehow they rigged a propeller to the frame and were moving right along.

DMan

While the image is funny, keep in mind how absolutely horrible it must be to live in a dictatorship like Cuba, that it would drive people to that kind of desperation. God bless them - and may Castro and his thugs rot in hell.

I lived in Miami for several years and it's almost a daily occurance for Cuban's to be entercepted on their way to the US. I've got to wonder what happens to these people when they are returned back to Cuba. Prison?

If they're lucky - or maybe not, because Castro's dungeons sure as hell aren't the condos that a lot of US prisoners get!

First thing that came to my mind when I first saw that thing was Monster Garage. What a living Hell it must be over there that people want off that island so bad!!