Wet Foot, Dry Foot: April 2............. from K

Sailing to Fort Jefferson has been a personal quest for me ever since my father urged me to go from his hospital bed last winter. However, as eager as I was to reach the Dry Tortugas, we encountered a few others who were a bit more excited to see the islands in the middle of no where:

During our first night anchored in the Garden Key basin, three Cuban refugees landed on the island in their homemade "chug" with a Yamaha 40-hp engine. Imagine - 90 miles in plastic covered foam tube with an empty deoderant canister fitted through the transom as a drain!!! As we dinghied onto Fort Jefferson, we could see three young men standing on the beach in white, cotton scrub suits. Obviously being escorted by the Park Service Rangers, the men smiled and waved at the visitors on the beach. A small Coast Guard Cutter had just arrived and the Coasties were giving each young man an orange life vest (kind of ironic considering that the Cubans were certainly more safe with the CG than they had been in their chug). We were told that since the men had put a "dry foot" on American land, they can request asylum and be processed in as aliens. However, if the Coast Guard had found them while still in their boat in the water, they would have been sent back to Cuba - probably prison. Hence, their jubilant smiles - I only wish I had been quick enough to snap their pictures.

These chugs might hold 8 to 10 people for the big trip.