I aint afraid of no ghosts

[Will Gilmore]

I was sitting down below aboard our 56' schooner, back in the 70s, it was a nice day and I was all by myself at about 12 or 13 years old. Suddenly the boat heeled over in her slip about 20 degrees and came back up. I went on deck, nothing.

A short time later, I was talking about it with one of the deckhands from a charter boat at Clearwater Marina, where we were docked. He told me he saw it happen. All the boats on our dock just suddenly leaned over like domino's and came back up.

And you guys tease me about my fear of giant squid. You know one of the only two videos ever recorded of giant squid was in the Gulf of Mexico.

As strange as that was, it was more a puzzle than scary. My scariest moment was standing watch in the middle of the Atlantic sailing from Burmuda to the Azores. Suddenly I hear the hissing sound of something in the water to starboard getting closer very fast. I look to my right and I see a column of phosphorescent heading straight at our broadside. I'm thinking military submarines making some mistake or an old forgotten WWII German UBoat that's been put at sea and hasn't heard the war has been over for 30 years. Either way, the torpedo headed straight at us wasn't just going to bounce off, even if it didn't explode.

It just about reached us when I clenched up and tried to pull my head down between my shoulders, only as it intersected with us, it took a hard turn to starboard and began playing in our bow wake. Those Atlantic dolphins

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Capt Robbie]

So, last year I experienced something that happened on my boat that I cannot explain. Every weekend as I exit the boat I shut down all systems, secure everything inside the boat, secure the lines, and lock up and set the alarm for the weekuntil I return next weekend.

When I returned to the boat the following weekend, I open the hatch and went below and found the interior of the boat in complete shambles. Cushions, lamps, table non slip place mats, on the floor, bottles that were stowed away up on shelves were broken on the galley floor. Things in the closet were all on the floor as well. The door in the v berth was opened, and a fan that is normally stowed behind the door was smashed. The boat looked like I just went through a hurricane or someone broke into it. Even after a really rough day of hard sailing thing not secured we'll never looked as bad as this did.

Here is the thing that can't be explained.
Alarm system was never set off, all hatches still locked no forced entry, and no bad storms or high winds during that week. Spoke to a live aboard couple and they also verified no storms or wind gusts the entire week.
Boat is docked in a well protected mariina and not exposed to any wave action. Showed pictures to my boat neighbors and they all confirmed that not one thing was out of place on there boats.

To this day still can't explain it, Maybe my ghost???

 

[jon hansen]

photo proof. mouth of sturgeon bay. wind pressure is up off the point shown. blowing 35. the photo agrees with that. reaching. perfect sails for this. the sails are pulling hard. we are well above hull speed. the the hull has dropped into the trough behind the bow wave. the second wave is out behind the transom. we four old sailors are comfortable in the cockpit, safe.

So look closely in this photo. Who or What is sitting on the cabin trunk on the high side, near the main mast? is that a ghost? is that an ORB? there is no gear or sail on the boat there. the camera caught it, we did not. lots of sailors from the past in my family. prolly one of them enjoying the ride. we sure did.

the white blob sitting up front, it's a great place to ride on our boat.

jon

 

[Will Gilmore]

Who or What is sitting on the cabin trunk on the high side, near the main mast?

That's the sun on your air scoop. The leeside scoop is dark because it is in shade. It makes it look almost like a person's leg, while the high side scoop is shining bright white and blending in with the sun shining off a wave behind it.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[jon hansen]

dark overcast day, and you suggest the sun glare. Will, that's no fun at all.

 

[dLj]

That's the sun on your air scoop. The leeside scoop is dark because it is in shade. It makes it look almost like a person's leg, while the high side scoop is shining bright white and blending in with the sun shining off a wave behind it.

-Will (Dragonfly)

Oh man Will! You're a spoil sport! That was such a better picture when everyone was talking ghosts! LOL

dj

 

[jon hansen]

......... there are shadows

 

[Will Gilmore]

My father had a friend, we all called Hippy Fred, because his name was Fred and he was a hippy. He had a little shop at Clearwater Bay Marine Ways, building custom chopper motorcycles and repairing small marine engines.

He owned Blitzed, a classic S&S wooden cutter, which he use to sail to Mexico for certain "supplies". Blitzen is the prettiest boat I know and was originally a fairly famous racing yacht. I have no idea how Hippy Fred came to own her

After my family moved out of Florida, my father got a call from Hippy Fred's wife. Blitzed had been found adrift off the coast of Texas, Hippy Fred lost at sea. Dotty, his wife, wanted my father to help sail Blitzed home to Clearwater.

The Old Man flew down to Texas and they began their trip. Then things began to happen. Sails that seemed in good shape ripped, control lines parted, finally, off the coast of Louisiana, the engine quite and they couldn't figure out why, nor get her started again. They called a Mayday and the coast guard towed them in to New Orleans.

Repairs were done, new sails and lines bought and time passed so that the Old Man had the rest of his family fly down to New Orleans to finish the journey. We set sail. Blitzen was a dream under canvas. A storm was coming and we took shelter on the hook in Mobile Bay.

In the middle of the night, the Old Man woke up and checked the anchor when he felt the movement change. The anchor rode broke and we were drifting. He woke me up to help set the second anchor.

Unfortunately, it was lashed to the cabin top underneath the dinghy and we had to unleash the dinghy first, to get to the anchor. We didn't make it before we started banging on a sandbar and soon had our keel wedged deeper into the sand.

The waves worked the boat against the keel and water started coming in around the garboards. Another Mayday call and a CG 40 footer came out to try and evacuate us off the boat. They only managed, in the storm, to get me off before deciding excavation was more dangerous than leaving everyone aboard the grounded boat until the storm ended.

The next day, Blitzen was towed to a marina on Dauphin Island and the Old Man inspected the anchor rode. He said it looked like it had been cut by a knife and he suspected the ghost of Hippy Fred didn't want Blitzen to make it back to Clearwater, for some reason. She never did. Dotty sold her out of that marina on Dauphin Island.

Here Blitzen is aground in Mobile Bay.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[jon hansen]

the beauty of wood boats is that they do not show up on radar.

.......... when bringing in a load.


..... or so i've heard

 

[Scott T-Bird]

We have an anchorage near our marina just off an island called "Conklin Island". It is basically just a large sandbar with vegetation. Several folks at our marina anchor off this island for lunch or whatever before heading back to the marina. Some of us anchor overnight just to get away from the slip on occasion, which is what I did one night several years ago. It happened to be a very dark night without any moonlight, as I dropped the hook well after sunset. I was alone and felt this strange presence around me that I couldn't figure out. I peered into the darkness toward the island for a long time and thought I could barely make out a shape. I even called Sue and told her I was anchored out and I thought there was another boat out there in the darkness without any light and it felt kind of spooky. I finally realized that I might see better if I use the binocs, and sure enough the binocs captured enough light so I could make out the definite shape of a boat on anchor off the shoreline. There was no light on the boat and I felt uneasy, but didn't move away regardless. So in the morning, I see what looks like a derelict boat, maybe 20' to 25' long, with a very distinctive slanted red stripe at the stern. There didn't appear to be anybody on board. And it was definitely on anchor about 300 yards from me and off to the east of my position, and this abandoned boat was anchored about 100 yards off the beach.

I thought nothing about it until the next weekend, when I noticed the same boat well up on the beach, nowhere near where I saw it anchored the previous weekend. It was over near the west end of the island. I happened to mention it to @Ward H , that I saw the boat on anchor the previous Saturday night and Sunday morning, but now it's on the beach. Ward said the boat had been abandoned on the beach for as long as he's been at the Marina (or something to that effect). I said, "no, I've never noticed that boat on Conklin Island before I saw it on anchor last week. Now it's on the beach." He said the boat with the red stripe has always been on the beach and we talked about the position so we knew we were talking about the same abandoned boat! The memory is fading, but I still don't have any explanation.

 

[Will Gilmore]

the beauty of wood boats is that they do not show up on radar.

.......... when bringing in a load.


..... or so i've heard

There was a Liza Minnelli, Gene Hackman and Burt Reynolds movie called Lucky Lady about a beautiful wooden sailboat and Rum Running.

No worries about radar, though.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Ron20324]

Our cat does the same thing. The wife believes she (the cat) sees something! I think she's messing with us!!

You sure it's not mice in the wall?

 

[HandsOnTech]

I read this thread yesterday and sure enough, my dog pulled that stunt on me last night. We are the only boat anchored among four small, uninhabited islands. I am sitting in the cockpit and he is asleep next to me. Suddenly, he is up and fully alert. Sniffing, listening and staring into the night. This went on for about ten minutes. He never did let me in on the secret. Oh, did I mention, we are in the Bermuda Triangle.