A Very Unordinary Miracle

I just got back from a spur-of-the-moment weekend vacation and have been trying to catch up on life, since it obviously did not stop to wait for me while I was gone. Which is why I have not written anything about the amazing thing that happened while I was on vacation until now. I just got back on Monday from a quick, three-day cruise to the Bahamas. I hadn't had a vacation in a while, and happened upon a very discounted price, so at the last minute I grabbed a couple friends and off we went. We had a wonderful time, reveling in the chance to sit back and enjoy some of the warm weather Florida has been missing, while enjoying the freedom of having every meal made for us, nearly every whim catered to. Which is exactly what we were doing on the last evening of our cruise...

We were sitting on the top open-air deck of the ship, next to the pool, playing a rousing game of dominoes and enjoying some beverages as we watched the Atlantic Ocean go by, when my friend spotted a small white object bouncing in between the whitecaps. At second glance, it almost looked like a tiny white flag. She immediately said, "That looks like a tiny little boat out there in the ocean!" Always the skeptic, I quickly dismissed that idea, sure that it was just some debris or a "lobster trap" or something...but she kept her eye on it, and as it slowly got closer to the ship, it did indeed look a little like a toy boat with a white sail. And as it got even closer, you could almost be certain that there was something on it that was moving. By this time, the object had attracted the attention of a few other passengers, one of whom informed a crew member. Before we knew it, the giant cruise ship was making a slow U-turn to investigate. As the object inched closer and closer, we discovered that it was indeed a boat, though not a toy one, but actually a raft with what appeared to be more than one person on it. Over the next several minutes, the most amazing thing happened. The cruise ship finally got close enough to discover six people on board a homeade raft. They were eventually rescued off of the raft by being hoisted with ropes up to the ship...and discovered to be six very dehydrated and weak individuals, five men and one woman, from Cuba that were attempting to sail to America. They had been at sea for 15 days, 8 of those days without food or water. We also learned that there had previously been seven people aboard the raft; one of them had died and been thrown overboard the day before. It was also said, though this is unverified, that they were no longer in the current that would have taken them to the coast of Florida, but were drifting and would most likely never have been found, had they not been spotted by people on board the cruise ship.

If you think that was an amazing coincidence, that the ship happened to be in the right place at the right time, it gets better. Early in the morning of that day, our cruise ship was scheduled to stop at a small private island for several hours before heading back to Florida. However, that stop was canceled at the last minute due to weather and choppy seas affecting the ability of the small tenders to safely dock on the island. Because of this, we started heading back to Florida earlier than anticipated. If we had docked on the Bahamian island as originally planned, we would most likely not have crossed paths with the raft at all, or if we had, it would have been dark and they would not have been seen.

All of this leads up to an amazing rescue that I personally believe was more than a mere coincidence. It was also thrilling to watch, and to hear the details from the crew later. It was a little sad too, knowing that these people were so desperate to leave whatever situation they were in that they risked their lives to try to make it to America...and yet, they didn't make it. As you may know, there's a law in Florida referred to as "wet feet, dry feet" that basically means that if these people had made it to dry land and had stood on American soil, they would have been able to stay in America. Because they were rescued at sea, they will now be taken back to Cuba instead. I'm sure it's better than dying at sea, but it's still a little disheartening. However, it was still an incredible thing to witness the rescue, and certainly surreal.

This story made local and national news, and I've posted a link to a video of the raft and passengers just prior to rescue that was shot by one of the cruise passengers. Being several stories up, I had not seen the rescue in such close detail until I saw this video; I was only able to get some blurry stills from my vantage point on the top deck of the ship. It definitely shows the joy on the faces of the passengers as we approached their vessel, dispelling the rumors that I had heard that they were reluctant to be rescued. One of the passengers was even blowing kisses toward the ship, while lying on his stomach, too weak to do anything but pick up his head.

http://www.wesh.com/video/26035168/detail.html