COUPLE FINDS RIVER TRIP FROM CUBA CHALLENGING

Last November Daryll and Robin Odegard thought "Cuban Adventure" was the name of a sailboat in a magazine ad that caught their attention.

Now they believe the phrase was more of a premonition of their sailboat trip back home from Cuba to Rock Creek, Minn.

"We purchased the boat sight-unseen," said Daryll, who works with his wife as a bricklayer when he isn't sailing. "We knew what repairs needed to be done, so we had the materials sent into Cuba, and fixed the boat."

The Minnesota couple have been stranded in Cape Girardeau since May 16, when their tri-maran had engine trouble about 10 minutes past Cape Rock on the Mississippi River. They are waiting for parts to be shipped from Minnesota so they can fix the engine and get back on the water.

The couple are staying on their boat at night despite offers of lodging from Tom and Betty Ross. The Rosses befriended the Odegards after they saw them having trouble.

"This is the most exciting thing we've ever seen," said Betty Ross. She and her husband meet friends every night during the summer to watch river traffic. "We've seen a lot down there, but nothing like this," she said.

The Rosses helped the couple refuel when they stopped for provisions earlier on May 16. The Odegards called the Rossess for help after their engine quit later that evening. The couples have been meeting daily since.

"I knew they were having trouble," said Tom. "When they called us we went and picked them up, and we've been meeting ever since."

This wasn't the first misadventure for the Odegards, or even their worst one. The Odegards have sailed through every major storm system that has blown up since they began their journey from Cuba in January.

Besides the engine trouble here, they've also lost their clothes to a tornado in the Florida Keys and dodged American missiles fired off of Crooked Island.

"I told Daryll I loved him a couple of times as those missiles were flying," said Robin.

This is the couple's first sailboat trip, and they said they've learned many of their lessons the hard way. Even though they are novices, they have done nearly all of the repairs to their boat themselves, and they haven't considered stopping the journey.

"You don't want to go back where you came from because there's nothing there," said Daryll. "When you're in a life-and-death situation, you can't turn back. You just keep on moving."

The couple have had as adventuresome a time in Cape Girardeau as they have had while sailing. They have seen a large portion of the town while walking around the city. They have enjoyed the downtown area best of all because they said it is pretty and full of surprises.

"One thing that's very impressionable is the rebuilding of the downtown," said Daryll. For someone coming into the town, it really looks nice."

Robin agreed. "The people here are very friendly," she said. "We sat down on the courthouse lawn the other day, and then all of these people just surrounded us. We heard singing and music, and then here came all of these people over the hill. It turned out it was the Jesus March, but we just thought, 'Oh, how nice all of these people are'."

The Odegards credit their survival to the help of strangers like the Rosses. They said making friends and meeting people willing to help strangers have made the unexpected more bearable.

"You never know who you'll meet in a town," Robin said. "The Rosses have open-heartedly helped us and befriended us from the moment we stepped on land. We did this so we could have memories. Good people help us with these memories."