Strange lights.

[Mike Banks]

This happened on or about Saturday 11th August this year--

We had left Cape Bowling Green and sailed throughout the night, the last part of it on our diesel motor, going towards Townsville. We were approximately 15-20 nautical miles south from Magnetic Island, at about two in the morning when I noticed an orange glow on the surface of the ocean.

Sudden panic as we thought this was an unmarked hazard on the chart, some sort of newly positioned danger light. It was still some miles away and too bright to be the usual marker--and I turned on the Radar to see if I could see anything not already visible. Our radar takes a while to warm up. I could see nothing with the binoculars--which indicated to me it was just below the horizon and probably a ship fishing for squid--hence the large amount of light.

I began to relax a bit--thinking this was the probable cause--when suddenly this bright orange ball of bright light rose very quickly into the sky and hovered at a height I estimate roughly at about one thousand metres--but perhaps it was more. I was certain it was not an aircraft--no helicopter or jet could climb so quickly in silence. The absence of noise was perplexing. The night was still, which is why we were using the motor. Neither was there any vapour trail as would be seen with a rocket, and no trail of sparks as from a parachute flare. The radio was silent--no distress calls.

The light then slowly circled--three or four times, the circle being perhaps a few hundred metres in diameter--then the light suddenly moved directly away from us at what appeared to be high speed--the brightness diminishing as it rose higher into the air--and in a few moments it had vanished entirely.

As soon as the light had risen into the sky I had switched off my navigation lamps. The radar showed nothing--or if it did I did not see anything. There was no low cloud that someone could have played a searchlight on--and there is usually some mist above the sea which would have shown such a beam of light.

So there you have it--exactly as I have recounted. Make what you will of it. In thinking back I considered balled lightning--but there was no other lightning or atmospheric turbulence obvious at the time--and at that hour of the morning the atmosphere is relatively still.

I had not been drinking--and I do not smoke dope or take drugs.

[Lancerbye]

That's all we need is some damn UFO's to mess with the cruising life style. Maybe it was just an intergalactic cruiser dumping his holding tank. Does he know what kind of **** he can get into for that? Gotta watch them local mushrooms in the muffins. LOL

[Sunspot Baby]

Incredible. Tons of wise cracks come to mind, but seriously who could you tell without being being ridiculed?

I to have seen some pretty incredible sites, but unlike you, alcohol and/or other substances may have contributed.

Imagine that, aliens fishing for squid.

George

[GordMay]

Moon Rise?
See the latest issue of "Good Old Boat" magazine, for Karen Larson’s first experience.

[Lancerbye]

Gord was that moonrise or moonshine? LOL

[Alan Wheeler]

I know it is hard to believe, especially when you see it with your own eyes, but from a proffesional carrer in sound, I can testify that sound and light can do some dramaticly unbelievable things with air inversion layers in the early morings especially if it is still air. The reflections of planets/stars/moon early in the morning can do many wierd and wonderful things you simply could not believe and totaly defy logical explanation. Even to see what you have seen

[Tropic Cat]

I trust you wrote him up for kicking into warp 1 while still in our atmosphere.

Seriously, It does sound like a close encounter. With as many cruisers as there are, I'm surprised there aren't more reports posted.

[DeepFrz]

What would the "official" explanation be? Swamp Gas?

I have also seen some strange and wonderful lights, and honestly not substance related. I have often thought of a siting when I was in the RCAF and stationed in New Brunswick. But back in those days I guess it could have been a U2 or some such.

[David M]

First thing I would guess is some sort of classified aircraft with its afterburners going.

[Reality Check]

About 10 or 12 years ago in late October, a friend and I were fishing In the wild life refuge North of Cape Canaveral. It was about 3AM when my friend ask me if I was hearing the pulsating low frequency sound... I was but had not thought much about it since we were so close to the Kennedy Space Center. A few minuets later he pointed out a set of bright but pulsating/ changing lights a few hundred feet above the ground. Hard to tell the distance as we had no reference as to size and a ground fog was setting in.

Within another 10 minutes we observed what appeared to be a rather large/ long series of white lights with some obviously Red and Green flashes. This object was going very slow just off the beach of Play Lynda in the refuge. The sound intensified and we could feel the vibrations in the aluminum fishing boat, lights were getting brighter and the darn thing swung toward us about 3 to 4 hundred feet above us and it was Huge!!! Looked like a tube 40 to 50 feet wide and more than a hundred feet long and the flashing lights were now reflecting off the water and in the fog the deep sounds Wommmmm Wommmm Wommmm became very loud.....

We looked at each other as though this was the last breath we may be taking as the object drifted more West... or toward Orlando...

Just before it came over head we saw IT... my gawd was it Hugh!!!

We then saw the bright white lights flashing and the red and green flickers...

I turned more to a broadside of us and then we KNEW...

It was the damn Goodyear Blimp with the company name in lights on the side and standard navigation lights, going to a foot ball game in Orlando.....

We both decided we had "fished" enough and headed back to our cars.... truth be told it was probably that we both needed to change our shorts...

[Mike Banks]

That afterburner thing is a possibility--there is an air base not far away in Townsville. I do not think it was the moon--wrong part of the sky and too small. Very bright orange the light was--and the circling was a bit tight for a jet aircraft--unless perhaps a Harrier--but the rate at which it climbed was quite rapid--almost as fast as a AAA tracer round.

No sound or condensation trails though--and I was within five miles of whatever it was. I do not think it was LGM (little green men)--just interested in the sorts of explanations on offer.

In the same general area and undoubtedly unrelated--a crew of three disappeared from a catamaran which was found derelict, engine running but in neutral, travelling under sail with a meal ready to be eaten on the table.

[Ex-Calif]

Submarine practice warshot?

[Moonchaser2304]

More years ago than I care to count, I was camped on a very desolate lake in central Utah with my day sailor on the beach, and that night after the camp fire was buring out a light came from the West, then two more trailing it on each side, then two trailing those, then two more trailing those but in narrower, and a final single one...all the lights formed a perfect ring that sent a shiver up my spine. I could not see the stars through the middle of the ring, making it look like a air ship a half mile across and only a few thousand feet aloft.

I seriously thought this something nobody else was seeing, or had seen, this was a special thing to see. Then I saw the outline of a military helicopter as one of the lights...oh..each of the lights are military helicopters with bright lights shining straight down, thus blocking my vision through the center of the ring. So what appeared like a space ship with permiter lights was a bunch of helicopters flying in a circle with no running lights on, just bright down lights..go figure. The "harmonic" sound of that many helicopters was really odd too adding to the suspense.

Oh, also in rural Utah we'd see some pretty fast lights..found out later it was classified aircraft that now is not classified..or at least that is what we were told!!

I totally believe people that say the see odd lights...hopefully there is some explanation behind them....

[Alan Wheeler]

If it was military by some remote chance, don't expect to ever see it on Radar. They are mostly screened from Radar.
There is a really good story in the Practicle boaters Mag of a similar story. Boat in heavy Fog. Guy has nothing on screen. Recieves a call on VHF from a Navy Ship and the guy still seeing nothing on the screen replies with "where are you?", ship replies with "can you see me now?" and instantly the blip of a large vessel appears on screen. They talk for a bit and answers questions. The call ends with the large blip simply vanashing off the screen once again.

[OldYachtie]

While in the doldrums between Fiji and Tuvalu on Batwing, I heard a sizzling noise while sitting in my pilothouse. I went on deck and saw ball lightning dancing at the head of my lightning rod. We had solid wood masts, and our lightning rod was an aluminum tube hoisted above the mast like a burgee stick, connected to a thick wire trailing in the water, with about 8' of wire having the insulation stripped from it. We had it rigged because there were thunder squalls everywhere around us. It was spooky, because I knew that ball lightning could be a precursor to a lighting strike. I guess the lightning rod jury rig worked, because we didn't get struck by lightning. - On another occasion I remember being spooked by a planet rising - it was so bright and clear, and maybe I was a little out of it from drowsiness or sensory deprivation. It looked like a ship heading right for us. - No "X-Files" moments, but I believe that perfectly truthful and reasonable people have had some.