BY JENNIFER BABSON

 A respite from rough weather has resulted in an increase in the number of Cuban migrant landings during the past week. At least 77 have arrived in South Florida since Wednesday.

 All the migrants -- who came in several different groups -- are believed to have been smuggled in by boat, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

 The latest landing was just before dawn Monday, when a group of 28 -- 18 men, four women, and six children -- arrived in Tavernier, according to Border Patrol spokesman Mike McClarnon. The group said they left Playa Piñón in Villa Clara province at 8 p.m. Sunday night in a 25- to 30-foot boat with twin outboard engines.

 No vessel has been recovered at any of the landings this week.

 Three migrants were found Sunday in Sunny Isles Beach. Border Patrol says they may have staged their landing -- having arrived undetected with a larger group at an earlier date. They go back to the beach for fake arrivals so they can be processed and begin their journey through the U.S. immigration process.

 Since the summer of 1994, when Fidel Castro opened the floodgates to quell a small uprising, under the law known as ``wet foot/dry foot,'' Cubans who reach land are allowed to stay while those intercepted at sea are interviewed by INS agents at sea and usually repatriated.

 One lone migrant was found on Key Biscayne on Wednesday, the same day agents picked up two others in Miami Beach. Like the three who were found in Sunny Isles Beach on Sunday, Border Patrol agents say they believe this group staged their landings.

 On Friday in Islamorada, another group of Cuban migrants -- seven men and two women -- were also detained by Border Patrol.

 Saturday evening, 34 Cuban migrants were found walking along U.S. 1 near mile marker 80 in Islamorada.

 The 20 men, nine women, and five children told agents they departed by boat from Villa Clara about 24 hours earlier.

 Cuba-U.S. smuggling voyages typically increase during the spring and summer months, when smoother seas usually make for an easier crossing. U.S. Coast Guard
 officials attribute the recent spate of migrant landings to a break in the bad weather.

 "You can definitely see a direct correlation with migrant numbers, when the weather is good, the numbers go up,'' U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Jamie Frederick said.

 The Coast Guard last week interdicted 14 migrants trying to reach the U.S. shore, most of whom appeared to be rafters rather than passengers on smuggling boats.

 Eight rafters were interdicted by the Coast Guard 30 miles south of Marathon; two migrants traveling by rowboat were stopped 23 miles east of Islamorada; and four migrants -- it's not clear what kind of boat they were using -- were interdicted 38 miles north of the Marquesas.

 All are still in the process of being repatriated to Cuba, said Scott Carr, a Miami-based spokesman for the Coast Guard.

 "Obviously, the people in the rafts and the little kicker engines aren't going to outrun you,'' Carr said. "The go-fast boats being operated by smugglers are harder to stop.''

                                    © 2001