HAVANA (Reuters):

After a lull following Fidel Castro's illness last year, Cubans once again are taking to homemade boats or powerful speedboats manned by smugglers on a trip to the United States that often includes a detour through Mexico.

Since May, the U.S. Coast Guard has been intercepting more boat people in precarious craft crossing the Straits of Florida in the calm summer waters. The U.S. Border Patrol also has been processing rising numbers turning up at the U.S. frontier with Mexico.

Cubans coming across the 90-mile (145 km) gap with Florida try to make it in anything that floats and has a motor - from a hijacked fishing boat to an array of inner tubes tied together with a weed whacker for propeller.

Illegal 'cigarette' boats

For those with a relative in Miami able to pay the $8,000 fare, there are illegal 'cigarette' boats that jet in and out of the Cuban coast in broad daylight to pick up migrants.

These racing machines cost upward of $150,000 and are built for eight to 10 passengers but often speed away jam-packed with 30 to 40 people at their own peril.

With several 275-horsepower outboard motors, they are twice as fast as communist Cuba's Russian-built patrol boats and give the U.S. Coast Guard a run for their money, too.

So far this fiscal year, 2,819 Cubans have made it ashore in Florida, compared with 3,076 in all of last year, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Zachary Mann.

The number of Cubans intercepted in the Florida Straits is still below - but likely to exceed - last year's 2,810, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.