Yordy Martinez and six other people left Cuba one summer night on a poorly constructed raft.  Even mild seas flipped their vessel with regularity.  Within 48 hours they lost their provisions and one soul.  Several days later another older woman succumbed to exposure and dehydration.  On the ninth day of the ordeal they landed on Summerland Key, and thier miraculous flight was over.  That was 1994.There's a popular sickness in the Keys called Keys Disease, whereby people slip into a state of sloppy drunken unemployment with the notable assistance of the extreme laissez-faire attitude of the island.  It's close enough to acceptable to be unconstructive that a lazy enough person can let himself get away with it.  Or you can bust your ass and be a hero.  Today Yordy is living the American dream better than a lot of Americans I know.  He's finishing his brand new three bedroom house himself for his two lively young children and his gorgeous Costa Rican wife.  He runs his own small business, commercial fishing for lobster and stone crab from August through May.  In the summer he takes some time off to spend with his kids and work on his boat and his gear.  He's positive and practical.  His philosophy is to keep things simple and work like a motherf%#&er.  You have to feel good for the guy.On this day we leave the dock before 7 AM.  It takes less than twenty minutes to get the first line of pots.  The sun is still climbing out of the east as lobster start filling the crate.  The shallow water allows the crew to haul and set at the same time, without stacking any pots on the boat.  As the one pot comes to the rail, the previous one launches off the stern.  There's enough line strung between the pots that they have time to empty, clean, and re-bait the pot before the line comes taut and snatches it back into the ocean.  Meanwhile the next one is at the rail and ready to be tended.  This all means that the crew can pull 500 pots in about six hours.  Today that produced over 600 pounds.  Lobster goes for just over $7 a pound right now.  You do the math.Of course it isn't like this all the time.  But Yordy doesn't get greedy in the boom time and he doesn't panic in the dry time.  He isn't too heavily leveraged, which means he may earn less in the short run, but he doesn't feel the ominous pressure to produce in the long run.  He can adapt, adjust, survive.  The impending construction of all the resorts and condos doesn't faze him in the slightest.  In fact, he smiles slyly when I mention it."All ah den rich people, they likey eatey the longosta."Yes.  Yes, they do.We get to the dock.  Yordy gives me about twelve lobster tails out of sheer kindness and generosity.  I really want to talk to him a little bit more, to absorb some more of his vibrant spirit, but he has other plans.  "Brah, I needey going home ang workey on my house."Of course he does.