Cubans try to sail to Fla. in '51 Chevy

[MikeyChalupa]

LINK

Cubans make freedom bid in floating Chevy truck
Thu Jul 24,12:23 PM ET


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.

The would-be emigrants were sent back home.

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 (145-km) 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 (64 km) 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.

I get most of my news from checking Yahoo! and their 5 or six stories that rotate through their front page. This headline caught my eye. While it's sad that people are driven to take this sort of risk due to the conditions they are escaping, the story itself is funny as hell.

-Mikey

[tikki]

I thought they shoulda gotten a free pass to the USA for having so much ingenuity

[gov135]

They sunk the Chevy?
They should have taken it to the Smithsonian to put on display.

[EROK81?]

Although kind of sad, that is a pretty funny story!

[shalafi]

we used to have some crazy haitian rafts washing up on the beach (never knew if the haitians made it or not) but never anything like that.

[Scooby]

Hehe funny story!

[Tirian]

I saw the floating truck on TV news last night. Really cool invention. Too bad to sink it....just cause it was a cool invention.

They likened it to Junkyard Wars on our local station. :-)

[sadistikdreams]

Fark
"12 Cubans Sail To Flordia on '51 Chevy. Monster Garage Surrenders"

[The_Dude]

it was in the houston chronicle today, and they had a pic.

it was pretty cool.

[troit]

US authorities may not but I certainly give them points for creativity.

[mml]

While I realize immigration laws are complicated, those guys should never have been sent back. Anyone with that much creativity, ingenuity and balls deserves to be an American.