MIAMI — The creativity that goes into making many of the migrant boats that take Cubans on their dangerous journey across the Florida Straits reflects the desperation they feel to leave their homeland for a better life.
Many vessels are nothing more than Styrofoam stuffed into chicken wire shaped to make the hull of a boat. They’re often powered by nothing more than 4-stroke lawnmower engines, or propelled by sails made from bed sheets.
Three men last week upped the ante in terms of thinking outside the box when they set off from Cuba on what appears to be a pedal boat painted to look like a car — the type of boat common at resorts, meant to laze about on calm man-made lakes, not make-way across one of the world’s most treacherous maritime passages.
