Strange phenomena seen while boating?

Mar 7, 2023
66
Hunter 28.5 Savannah
Ok I will start with my story of strange lights and activities I (we) seen while on the waters off the Bahamas.
I was stationed at AUTEC (Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center) US Navy operations at Andros.
We kept a Hobie Cat on the beach and several of us would sail around the waters off the base sometimes till late at night, beach the Hobie Cat, head over to beach bar for drinks, and then back to the beach. We sat drinking and watching the stars when all of a sudden we saw 6-8 lights moving in different directions converging into one single point of light and move in a single straight course for at least thirty seconds then they dispersed in all different directions at high speed. We weren’t drunk or passed the point of judgement and agreed we knew what we saw. We never told anyone and agreed to keep it within ourselves or risk losing our clearances because of the sensitive nature of our activities on base.

I’ve since seen other phenomena I can’t explain while sailing at night especially bright lights underwater moving at high speeds but not sure if they may have been submarines, or other test vehicles we know nothing about.

The best I could describe what we saw were the alien ships in the movie ‘Close Encounters’ when the UFO’s decided to show up at the Devils Tower in that incredible scene.

Anyone have these strange encounters with lights in the night sky or underwater lights you can’t explain?
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,999
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
I have seen the torpedoes of light that were pretty freaky, but figured out that dolphins swimming at speed disturbing the phosphorescent plankton were the cause..
I once saw a large dragon emerge from the water in front of the boat but that one I know was the scopolamine playing games at 3 AM..
 
Dec 14, 2003
1,411
Hunter 34 Lake of Two Mountains, QC, Can
One night, on watch during what we had called the graveyard shift (12:00 to 03:00) on a trip from MA to Bermuda, during the 2nd hour of my watch I kept seeing a red light appearing on port, moving towards aft away from the boat, then disappearing without any other lights appearing, until a few seconds later it would reappear again. Always at the same place and following the same trajectory. During the last hour of my watch, I had to use the head and saw that the red light we had in the head area was phosphorescent in the head bowl :biggrin:. Getting back in the cockpit I soon realized that the phosphorescence of the water was carrying the red color of the port navlight with every wave we were going over until we started down on the backside of that wave to climb on the next one. :banghead:All that time looking for something that could be dangerous, wandering what the heck it was. Seen it a couple of other times since but smart enough now to know what it is !:laugh:
 
Mar 7, 2023
66
Hunter 28.5 Savannah
I have also witnessed this reflected light phenomena from both the Navy ships as well as when sailing at night and at times it’s reflected at some great distance so yeah…

The lights we saw were definitely in space as we compared them to the satellites as they also were passing by at another location in the night sky. There were no drones in people’s use at that time period (1982-1988) at least the toys/drones we see today and definitely not at those distances or altitudes.
 
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Nov 8, 2007
1,561
Hunter 27_75-84 Sandusky Harbor Marina, Ohio
Our watch crew saw an inexplicable light on the mid-watch when we were heading south outside the Gulfstream from Charleston to Key West on our sub tender. Could have been a distant flair from the Russian trawler following us, but didn't behave at all like a flair, or a meteor.

My experience is that when I am outdoors under the sky for long periods of time, I will see strange things I can't explain, and wonderful things I can explain. Our modern, indoor existence deprives us of the wonders we might otherwise see.
 
Jun 8, 2004
2,909
Catalina 320 Dana Point
In daylight saw an upside down motor vessel halfway to the horizon, big one like an Ocean Alexander, not capsized just inverted. Stayed like that for about 20 minutes until conditions changed such that the right side up vessel could be seen also.
 
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Mar 7, 2023
66
Hunter 28.5 Savannah
My experience is that when I am outdoors under the sky for long periods of time, I will see strange things I can't explain, and wonderful things I can explain. Our modern, indoor existence deprives us of the wonders we might otherwise see.
I read an astronomy article where one amateur astronomer attached an image intensifier to his telescope and filmed amazing things flying in space where they were darting, changing course, stopping then accelerating at super speeds almost as if the objects had intelligence compared to the known satellites which behave predictably in orbit.

I’ve been wanting to get the proper image intensifier but the military grades are still too pricey and the other commercial G3 intensifiers are still in the thousands of dollars but I definitely want to try it out with my 10” scope.
 

PaulK

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Dec 1, 2009
1,306
Sabre 402 Southport, CT
I read an astronomy article where one amateur astronomer attached an image intensifier to his telescope and filmed amazing things flying in space where they were darting, changing course, stopping then accelerating at super speeds almost as if the objects had intelligence compared to the known satellites which behave predictably in orbit.
Bugs stuck between the optics?
 

dLj

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Mar 23, 2017
3,824
Belliure 41 Back in the Chesapeake
Leaving Guadalupe, we left around 4:30 am with a full moon. We were off the coast and over the mountains was a rainbow formed from moonlight! There was even a very faint double rainbow in one section backed by clouds. That's a first for me! It was spectacular!

dj
 

jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
22,174
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
The other day upon leaving Guadeloupe about 05:30, with a full moon to the west of us, we looked back East towards the island. What looked like a moon generated rainbow filled the sky over the island. A light grey colored half halo arched in the mist falling over the island. It was a fascinating experience.
 
May 17, 2004
5,429
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
Leaving Guadalupe, we left around 4:30 am with a full moon. We were off the coast and over the mountains was a rainbow formed from moonlight! There was even a very faint double rainbow in one section backed by clouds. That's a first for me! It was spectacular!

dj
I’ve seen that before too. Takes a full moon and just the right amount and type of cloud cover, but quite remarkable when it happens.
 
Mar 30, 2013
700
Allied Seawind MK II 32' Oologah Lake, Oklahoma
Coming out of Mare Island shipyard on a nuke submarine in 1983 we got to spend a rough night on the surface somewhere west of Point Reyes because it was too rough for our safety boat to come out to monitor our first dive after overhaul. Standing a lookout watch in the bridge both the Officer of the Deck and myself saw a VW bug sized glowing blue-green ball crest a wave and smash against the side of the ship at the base of the sail. It broke into what looked like millions of tiny sparks like an underwater aerial fireworks. OOD and I looked at each other and simultaneously said "WTF was that". Some kind of bio-luminescent cluster of course but in the moment it was kind of freaky.
 

capta

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Jun 4, 2009
4,875
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
On our last sail south to the Caribbean from Bermuda, I was looking at a star in the NE sky when it went supernova.Nikki saw it too, so it wasn't my imagination, and I logged it with the time, date, direction, etc.
Upon arriving in St.T. I got online and sure enough it was exactly that. That is just one of many, but probably the only one of true cosmic proportions.
 
Aug 2, 2009
651
Catalina 315 Muskegon
On our last sail south to the Caribbean from Bermuda, I was looking at a star in the NE sky when it went supernova.Nikki saw it too, so it wasn't my imagination, and I logged it with the time, date, direction, etc.
Upon arriving in St.T. I got online and sure enough it was exactly that. That is just one of many, but probably the only one of true cosmic proportions.
Interesting too, because depending on how many light years away it was, it actually went super nova many years ago. Did you happen to learn how far away it was?
 
Nov 21, 2007
673
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
OK, I hesitate to even post this, especially after a supernova sighting! But, I will try to bring us back to Earth.:facepalm: For our very first overnight boat cruise of any kind, we rented a small power catamaran in the San Juans Islands in September of 2007. We wanted to see if we would actually enjoy being out on a boat for several days, or whether we would feel trapped... you know how that turned out.

While tied to a mooring buoy at Spencer Spit, we saw a deer swimming across between two of the islands. At the time we certainly thought it was strange! We had discussed with the charter company that they wanted us to just stay put, if we got fogged in. We wondered what they would say, if we called to tell them that we'd hit a deer on our way back to Anacortes. At least I managed to get a picture of it.

Deer-1.jpg