cuba?

[kolebyt1996]

Does anyone know if you can see the lights from cuba when you pass between florida and cuba at night and how likely is it that the ship will have to stop and pick them up just asking because ive heard stories of ships having to pick up people floating on rafts

[Aquahound]

You will only be close enough to see Cuba if going to the Eastern Caribbean. If you are going West, you will not see Cuba.

 

As for rafts......not likely. Cuban migrants are mostly smuggled these days.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Cuba does have a very strong "farol", I guess "lighthouse" actually at the Western-most tip of their island. When you cruise to Cozumel you do see that light at night on the left hand side of the ship as you head south. It is so strong you can see it for quite a long time. I have always found it comforting for some strange reason.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

It isn't only Cubans out there in the water. Haitians are out there too. Because of the hunger crisis in Haiti now, the Coast Guard is expecting many more to try to leave by sea to reach the US or the Bahamas.

[keywesst]

A lot of them do make it, sometimes even to the Tortugas, which "counts" as it's American soil. The (ferry) boats to the Tortugas even carry white uniforms for any migrants to wear, and give them safe passage to KW where they are put on a bus to Miami.

I've sailed to Cuba twice, and saw no lights but I went through squalls. I could not imagine crossing the Straits on a raft, that water was even scary in my 41 foot boat.

[MTcruiser]

I thought I saw cuba from the imagination a couple years ago.

[487]

Yes, you can see the lights along the shoreline.

 

We passed by on a western carribean trip (confirmed by my GPS on deck about 10pm). I forget how many miles away we were (the GPS told me), but it was quite a distance and the lights were very visible.

[sillylizzie]

We passed by Cuba as well. The captain actually announced it on the loudspeaker the first night on board. I don't know how far away we were at the time, but lights were visible. Though you couldn't see an outline of a shoreline or anything. Just the distant lights...

[cogitosum]

I saw the lights of Havana ( just 90 miles away) from the Afterdeck at Louie's Backyard in Key West after 3 mojitos.;)

[Lowie]

Does anyone know if you can see the lights from cuba when you pass between florida and cuba at night and how likely is it that the ship will have to stop and pick them up just asking because ive heard stories of ships having to pick up people floating on rafts

this is the pic of us picking us cuban refugees on the Carnival Triumph. At the end of the cruise the Captain spoke about the people we helped to save and it brought tears to my eyes. i can't imagine being so miserable with life that you resort to such action.

[snc421]

Wow! That's incredible!

 

 

 

We were 170 miles off the coast of Sarasota, Florida at about 6 PM on our return to Tampa aboard the Legend when we had to turn around to check out a possible 'abandoned ship'.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did not see any people, but there is a bird chilling on the left rear corner of this raft. How eerie!

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

SNC421, that is so sad. One has to really stop and wonder what happened to the occupant(s) of that rickety boat.

[Aquahound]

SNC421, that is so sad. One has to really stop and wonder what happened to the occupant(s) of that rickety boat.

 

So true. If that boat was south of the Keys, I would say it's likely the CG picked them up and abandoned the boat (not all can be sunk easily).

 

But from what I'm getting out of the post, this boat was North of the Keys. When they miss the Keys and keep going north.......not good. :(

[snc421]

So true. If that boat was south of the Keys, I would say it's likely the CG picked them up and abandoned the boat (not all can be sunk easily).

 

But from what I'm getting out of the post, this boat was North of the Keys. When they miss the Keys and keep going north.......not good. :(

 

Way north of the Keys... totally didn't and still doesn't make sense! It was like 6:30 PM on the Saturday of my Legend cruise. (We were en route to Tampa.) After dinner that night, we saw the beginning of the lighted bouys lining the shipping channel into the Bay. Really cool, like a runway. I tell you this so you can imagine how far north we really were. And did you see the contents of the raft?

 

I would love to see Cuba from a ship! I did see Chetumal at night as we left Cozumel en route to Belize... but to ehco what others have said, we can go to Chetumal whenever, when could we hope to go to Cuba?

[Steamboatin]

We were rounding the western tip of Cuba in the afternoon hours of the day. We could easily see the light house, buildings, trees and the sandy beachs. Several sail boats were enjoying themselves near the shore line.

[cogitosum]

When in Key West you can always take the tunnel to Cuba.

[sanditoes4]

On our first cruise we went East from FL first and came back around the west end of Cuba on our way back. We seen lights of Cuba, no you couldn't make anything out but you could see lights. And we picked up a boat load of Cuban refugees!!!! I guess I was on the lucky run there, lights and hitch hickers!!! (pictues of refugees in #1 cruise below)

 

It is all up to your captain I'd think, if he wants to get close enough or not? We left Cozumel and went right back to FL, so I like to think he had nothing else to do so he swung us by close enough for a night time view??

[Aquahound]

It is all up to your captain I'd think, if he wants to get close enough or not?

 

On the Eastern route, the Captain has no choice. Look at this satellite image. The Great Bahama Channel is just off the Cuban coast. The ship has to get close to stay in the deep water. Otherwise, the ship would run aground on the Great Bahama Bank (the big light blue area).

[woodofpine]

Occassionally, one comes very close to Cuba from the west. We were surprisingly close on Summit (?) several years ago returned from an 'Ultimate Caribbean' itinerary.

 

We could see smoke from small fires on shore, individual buildings, and boats off shore. That night, we saw lights from shore. On a Westerdam cruise, we saw mountains of Cuba from further off shore.

 

Boat people aren't an everyday thing of course. Naval authorities on both countries do a pretty good job discouraging it. Picked up, they're sent back so the 'boaters' aren't keen on getting picked up either unless imminent drowning is the option.