I was cleaning out some files today and came across an article from
7/24/2003. It was about the cubans that tried to make it from the island
to
the USA in a junkyard-wars style modified truck. I don't remember which
team
it was but one did the same thing with 55 gallon drums for flotation and a
propeller attached to the driveshaft. Illegal imigration issues aside,
this
showed some pretty good moxie.
Ah, those were the days of inspiration. Don't give up hope. -Oppie-
http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/8784/cubans_sure_truckboat_plan_was_a_winner/index.html
Cubans Sure Truck-Boat Plan Was a Winner
The Cubans who converted a 1951 Chevy pickup into a boat and got within 40
miles of Florida said Thursday they were sure that the audacity of their
act
would guarantee entry into the United States.
But a U.S. Customs plane spotted their unusual, bright-green craft in the
Florida Straits and they were sent back to the island.
"We thought that they would let us in because it was so outrageous," Ariel
Diego Marcel told Associated Press Television News.
The truck-raft was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon drums attached to the
bottom as pontoons. A propeller attached to the drive shaft of the green
vintage pickup was pushing it along at about 8 mph.
"We arrived at the coast in the same truck and assembled everything in six
hours," said another of the would-be immigrants, Eduardo Perez Gras. "If
they had let us get to Key West, we would have been able to drive it right
onto the sand."
The nine men, two women and baby were at sea for 31 hours before the plane
spotted them. The truck was sunk as a hazard to ocean navigation.
Under U.S. immigration policies, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are allowed
to
stay while those caught at sea are usually returned.
Migrants have been founds on rafts or small boats made out of
refrigerators,
bathtubs, surfboards and inner tubes, but U.S. Coast Guard officials said
this week that the truck appeared to be a first.
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