Compass News – 7 April 2026

Cayman Compass

Five days at sea: A Cuban refugee’s harrowing journey to Cayman

For days, the men had worked in silence in a remote stretch of mangrove and river in central Cuba, assembling a vessel from whatever they could source or salvage – pine boards, flattened zinc roofing, fibreglass, and a repurposed engine once used to pump water through rice fields.

They had done it under constant threat of arrest, moving materials in secret, hiding behind trees, speaking in code.

By the time they launched, they had already failed seven times.

This time, they did not intend to fail again.

What followed was a journey that would stretch across nearly a week at sea – through storms, mechanical breakdowns and navigational error – before ending, unexpectedly, on the shores of Grand Cayman.

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