Cubans reach US on 'inner tube' boat

Three Cubans making a treacherous trip in a rickety contraption made with inner tubes and a hand-held sail were rescued by the Coast Guard and beachgoers.

At least five others were missing in seas where waves reached up to 12 feet and 25 mph winds howled against the coast off Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

“We had to drink our own urine to survive,” said Carlos Lazaro Bringier-Hernandez, 38, who was interviewed in his hospital bed. “The weather was awful, the whole time. The waves were sometimes 10 feet high.”

Coast Guard spokesman Tony Russell said one of the rescued migrants, a woman, was plucked from the waters by a diver and hoisted into a helicopter while two men were helped to shore by people along the beach.

All three were taken to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale.

Russell said the woman told authorities four men had died in the past two days and another was missing.

Witnesses said the rafts included large black inner tubes and a small canvas sail that was held by the migrants to catch the wind. There was no mast, and only one, splintered wooden oar made it to shore.

“Those are rough conditions for some of the best-made Coast Guard cutters, let alone some homemade raft that should never be on the water in the first place,” Russell said.

Under US law, known as the “wet foot-dry foot” policy, Cuban immigrants who reach dry land are generally allowed to stay in the United States, while those who are intercepted at sea are returned to the communist island about 90 miles from Florida.