12. Radio Marti

It was like a bulky rowboat: about 20 feet long with high sides, made of old planks already grey, almost black, from exposure. We saw it later. An iron bar in the stern was connected to a crude ruder. The boat had no engine or sails.

They must have pushed off the beach in the darkness of the new moon and with the forecast of steady south east winds for three days. They drifted north until the Gulf Stream picked them up and shook them and swept them along. It probably took three days and nights to cross the ninety miles from Cuba to the Keys.

If they could arrive at night and could just touch land in USA each of them would be a refugee, entitled to a green card and $10,000 start up money. They knew all about the wonders of the USA from TV/Radio Marti beamed at Cuba from the four masts right here in Marathon. They have watched sitcoms in which even casual teenagers live in luxury homes and drive their own cars.

If they were stopped at sea they would be arrested, and deported back to Cuba.

Helpless to time their arrival they crossed the reef into flat water mid morning. They could see families on the beach, sea-doos, and the SUVs shining in the parking lot under the masts of Radio Marti.

The fisherman in the new white fiberglass “Happy Hooker’ with two 225 horsepower Yamahas on the back called the coastguard on channel 16. Everyone could listen.

“…Yeah…Looks like nine people on board….paddling with their hands…about 2 miles off the beach at Marathon.”

“…Say, Coastguard, when you are done, can I have the boat as a souvenir?”