Yet another slap in the face of determination:
MIAMI (AFP) - The US Coast Guard has sent back 11 Cubans who tried to sail to the United States in a bright green 1951 Chevrolet flatbed truck mounted on a large drums, officials in Florida said.
A US plane spotted the unusual raft in the Florida Straits, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Key West, Florida on July 16, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Key West is located 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Cuba.
The Coast Guard repatriated the eight men, two women and one child, and sank the vessel, deeming it "a hazard to navigation."
A photograph taken by the Coast Guard shows the craft cruising on calm seas. Several of the men sat atop the green truck and others were apparently under the bright yellow canopy that covered the back of the vehicle.
When US officials saw the boat, "they couldn't believe their eyes", the Coast Guard said in a statement.
"The drive shaft of the truck had been dropped from the back axle and was now used to turn a propeller. 55-gallon drums had been lashed together to form a pontoon on either side of the vehicle," the statement said.
Cubans fleeing the communist-run island have in the past used a variety of means of staying afloat, including inner tubes, surfboards and rickety rafts.
In recent months several planes and boats were stolen or hijacked by Cubans desperate to reach Florida.
On Monday, the United States Monday returned to Cuba a group of people who had hijacked a boat to leave the country, after Havana agreed to limit the guilty parties' jail terms to 10 years.
The boat was intercepted at sea last week.
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 29 July 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)
I give them a million points for that, but unless I miss my guess, 'hydroplane' doesn't come in a truck's standard list of options.
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 29 July 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)