I sent the photos of the truck time ago (and from the other car) to Jesse James of Monster Garage when they came in those occasions...
I hope he can contact Monster Garage or other TV outlet for the story...

One of the luckiest little five-year olds in the world! I almost want to cry seeing that picture and remembering little Elian...

You took the words out of my mouth, GLM...

Thank God they're here.

I remember awhile back seeing the pictures of these guys and their car/boat and yelling: "Damn, these are the kind of innovative people we WANT here!!"

It just about broke my heart hearing that they got sent back. I was so angry and wondered why we didn't have a special "Creativity Exception" that would let them in.

Imagine undertaking such a frightening journey with a small child. Thank God they made it finally, safely. Of course, it's hard to imagine why they would undertake such a journey seeing as how fidels Cuba is such a paradise. Hey fidel are you paying attention? How does it feel to take another one up the rear?

During the time when the rafts were being put out to sea by the dozens, I found a raft/boat/? about 35 miles offshore from Sebastian Inlet just north of Vero Beach.

This craft was made of 20 ft long by 12 inch diameter metal tubes capped at both ends assembled in a V configuration using reenforcing steel bar welded to them to hold them together.

The 3 bottom tubes were left open so water could run in and out and serve as ballast. The front was an armature put together from steel bars and sheet metal into a bow in order to cut the seas. All said it was about 25 ft long.

Built inside the V was a platform constructed of planks and cut up wooden house doors. The seas would come in and out as the boat was effectivelly self bailing and would stay afloat no matter what.

Inside was a 4 cylinder chinese engineat an angle with a drive shaft coming out of it and locked in place overboard by a wooden block using carpeting as a wet bearing.

The propeller was 4 blade and home made, using removable metal blades bolted to a laminated wood pinion. The fuel containers were the 2nd two capped steel cylinders used for floatation to which fittings had been welded, probably holding about 50 gals total. even had small hoses tied up high to the sunshade superstructure in a J to serve as a breather for the tank.

They had spare propeller blades and some parts fot the engine like a couple of makeshift fuel filters and a jug of engine oil in a wooden box inside.

When I found the boat, it had been sprayed with paint by the USCG which meant that the passengers had been picked up. You could tell that they had tried to sink it so it would not pose a navigation hazard and failed. It had holes drilled into some of the tubes but they did not dare cut into the tubes holding fuel so it remained afloat.

It probably reached Ireland a few weeks later. An excellent and superb example of Cubiche makeshift engineering.

Alguien se la comio!

PS: We did pick up a couple of Dorados about 12 lbs each (dolphin/mahi mahi) that were swimming underneath it.

I have a photo I took myself in Miami of one of these boats in a prominent place my living room wall. The color and the improvisation of it look to me like art. I treasure the sight of it and think it uplifts the human spirit. And to remind us all never to forget. These boats are poignant symbols of the innate human desire for freedom.

Oh man, I would so love a picture of the V-shaped cubaniche boat.

I would love to have a copy of that photo, A. M. Mora y Leon....

I would love to have a copy of that photo, A. M. Mora y Leon....

This is the best news I've read in a good long while!

Finally. They should have been here long ago.

Chrenkof had a great posting on this today!

I can not withhold the tears. GOD BLESS THEM!

Mora Y Leon, unfortunately I did not have a camera on the boat, it was left back at the truck which really ticked me off.

I did get an oar off the boat which I kept and the chinese carburator which is somewhere in a box. I have some other pictures of other rafts as they became a common sight those few weeks back when and by then I had learned my lesson. We were seeing them as far north as Daytona, I guess they were too far out to sea after that as the Gulf stream slowly curves east after going past Cape Canaveral.

I have to look for the pics as I still have a bunch of stuff still packaged in plastic in boxes because of the 3 hurricanes we had last summer which really sucked. I'm still fixing stuff on the house since workers are nonexistent it seems. I remember one boat had la virgen de Regla painted on it.

When I locate them I can scan them and send them to you guys.

I'll see if I can scan mine too - I took that pic, blew it up to a bigger size and then realized - oh man, this is a beautiful picture to look at. I took mine at a 'no castro no problem' rally of Cubanos in Miami back in August 1995. My Cuban-American roomate from college lived there and she invited me down from NY for the weekend. She's a liberal (unlike her mom and brother still in Miami), but to her credit, she wanted to take me some place she thought I would enjoy. So I got the treasured boat pic from it.

As I type this, Current Affair (FOX) has a piece on this, great story!

SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE A BOOK ON THESE INCREDIBLE PEOPLE. EVEN A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT CARAVANISTA LIKE MYSELF IS JUST AMAZED