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Old 02-20-2014, 10:39 PM
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Default Escaping Cuba On A Windsurfing Board




Cuban windsurfer missing after attempting to cross Florida Straits
BY MICHAEL HASKINS
KEY WEST, Florida Thu Feb 20, 2014 6:58pm EST

(Reuters) - Three Cuban migrants attempted to windsurf across the Florida Straits to reach the United States on Tuesday, but only one is known to have reached dry land.

A second was rescued at sea by a fisherman Thursday morning. The U.S. Coast Guard continued late Thursday to search for the third migrant.

Henry Vergara Negrin, 24, said he left Jibacoa, Cuba, near Havana at 9 a.m. Tuesday with two companions on separate boards, according to a report by the Key West, Florida, police.

Jibacoa is a fishing village in the Mayabeque province of Cuba about 97 miles south of Key West.

Negrin came ashore at Key West's luxury Reach Resort nine and a half hours later. Hotel guests and the hotel's beach bartender helped him to a lounge chair where the staff took care of him, hotel spokeswoman Lisa Cole told Reuters.

"They made sure he was comfortable, got him some towels, water. They said he looked exhausted," Cole said.

Negrin is the first reported Cuban windsurfer to make the treacherous crossing in two decades. A couple of windsurfer cases were documented during a mass exodus of Cubans in 1994 known as the "rafter crisis."

Many Cuban have died trying to cross the Straits as they flee their communist-ruled homeland."

Continued at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A1J2E320140220

and


"Migrant windsurfs to U.S. from Cuba
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
A Cuban migrant windsurfed from Cuba to Key West Tuesday, but two other windsurfers he was with were apparently lost in the Gulf Stream about 60 miles south of the Florida Keys, according to Key West police and the Coast Guard.

Henry Hugo Vergara Negrin, 24, came ashore at The Reach Resort, 1435 Simonton St., at 6:35 p.m. and told police he and the others left Jibacoa, Cuba, at 9 a.m. Tuesday bound for the U.S. on windsurfing boards.

Jibacoa is a fishing village in the Mayabeque Province of Cuba on the island nation's northwest coastline.

Coast Guard Cutter Key Biscayne from Key West and the Miami-based Bernard C. Webber Cutter, as well as a Coast Guard twin-engine HC-144 Ocean Sentry search plane, also from Miami, began searching for the other two windsurfers about 7 p.m. Tuesday, said Sector Key West spokesman Ensign Peter Bermont.

There are also fast response boats from Sector Key West patrolling the Keys shoreline in case the other two made it to shore elsewhere, Bermont said.

Negrin told police the other two men were known to him as Amando and Dwarta, but he reportedly did not know or did not provide their last names.

"We're saturating the search area," Bermont said. "He said he lost sight of them approximately 60 nautical miles south of Key West. Part of our search pattern includes following the Gulf Stream drift pattern as well as following the route of the one we know made it ashore."

Negrin was treated briefly Tuesday night at Lower Keys Medical Center after his 9 1/2-hour journey for blisters on his hands before being turned over to U.S. Custom and Border Patrol agents, who processed him at the CBP station in Marathon and then released on his own recognizance, said spokeswoman Elee Erice.

Negrin received aid from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Miami after he was released from the CBP station in Marathon, said Francisco Figueroa of the Church World Service resettlement agency."

More at: http://keysnews.com/node/53658


He may have worked at Breezes Jibacoa as they have windsurfing there. I recall another fellow who windsurfed to the USA from Cuba worked at a windsurfing concession in Cuba. You would need considerable windsurfing skill to make it to Key West in the conditions the Straits of Florida can throw out. It looks like the wind may have been easterly for some of the time in the low 20's making the crossing a beam reach. This is based on NWS records near Key West and Weatherunderground archive records for Havana and Varadero, Cuba. Jibacoa falls between these two places. There were points when the wind swung to the northeast likely creating short wavelength steep waves impeding progress.



Breezes Jibacoa, a possible point of departure from Cuba.


The Reach Resort, Key West

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Last edited by ricki; 02-21-2014 at 03:02 PM.
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