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Old 19-01-2018, 06:40   #1
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Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

Ok this could be fun
Whats the craziest thing or object you have ever seen out on the water

Include pictures if you have any

Craziest thing I encountered was a makeshift boat made out of pallets and styrofoam floated by us with 6 people on it.
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Old 19-01-2018, 06:50   #2
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

Maybe not so crazy but surprising: an enormous bundle of still partially inflated helium balloons from a Marine World 300 miles away. I ran them up the mast for the duration of the trip... then I guess I looked pretty crazy.
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Old 19-01-2018, 07:08   #3
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

6 bright orange 40' shipping containers floating within a few hundred feet of each other in the Bering sea. It was remarkable that they stayed so close to each other.

Jenny's pretty sure she saw an alien spacecraft once, too. No kidding, we're not crackpots!
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Old 19-01-2018, 07:20   #4
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

Roughly 40 miles offshore, halfway between Tampa Bay and Key West a few years ago, we spotted a "flashing light" westward and up-wind of us that appeared like someone flashing reflected sunlight at us with a mirror. Against the possibility that someone might be adrift in a small boat or raft, we hauled around and beat back a mile or so to discover a bundle of Mylar "Happy Birthday" balloons resting on the surface of the water, only a few still inflated. Appreciating the hazard to sea life, we managed to snag the damned thing with a boat hook, bring it aboard, puncture the still inflated balloons and stuff them in our trash bin. I hate the darned things... Balloon releases are one of the dumbest exercises I can imagine.

One of the oddest, or funniest things we've seen, was in an anchorage on St. Lucia last November. A "Native" power cruiser complete with a "dinghy/kayak" bimini.
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Old 19-01-2018, 08:43   #5
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

About a week ago we were on a night crossing from Florida to Bahamas about the latitude of Freeport. Half way across I started seeing searchlights playing on the clouds. The boat/platform whatever was hull down over the horizion.

It was not a simple single light but it was a carrying configuration including an array of 6-8 simultaneous equally spaced lamps. All kinds of crazy configurations. And I saw them for quite a long time, maybe over four or five hours. It played on the clouds directly over our boat, so that was a distance of at least 5 miles.

USN out of Jax playing with a new toy?
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Old 19-01-2018, 08:54   #6
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

A lone kayaker 6 miles off shore, atlantic, with huge penn senators fishing . 80 miles out in gulf of mexico, no wind surronded by swarms of small lime green mosquitto floating on seaweed the size of a football field, and crazy hungry...🤬😱
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Old 19-01-2018, 08:55   #7
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

Quote:
Originally Posted by RobD527 View Post
Ok this could be fun
Whats the craziest thing or object you have ever seen out on the water

Include pictures if you have any

Craziest thing I encountered was a makeshift boat made out of pallets and styrofoam floated by us with 6 people on it.
In Search and Rescue years ago we saw cases of cigarettes (dumped from a smuggling boat), (a bag of money with thousands of dollars) we gave it to the police... (dummies we were), once picked up a box of dried yeast tablets (dumped by a smuggling boat), a boat made of a sheet of 3/4" plywood with a 2"x6" all around and a 2"x12" at the rear with a 10hp and caulking at the joints, 10 people on it. A boat with 85 cases of cigarettes, no person on board... he ditched himself and disappeared.
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Old 19-01-2018, 09:02   #8
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

Forest Fire in the Atlantic!
April 2007 10 hours out from St John's river inlet in route to Charleston SC we were engulfed in forest fire smoke restricting visibility to 40 meters. Forest fires in Georgia blew over the water like fog but smelled awful.
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Old 19-01-2018, 09:22   #9
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

#1 - Nuclear sub surfaced about a half mile from us on a foggy day. Scared the p*** out of me bc I couldn’t figure out what this massive object was that seemingly appeared out of nowhere on the radar. Definitely the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on the water.

#2 - humpback whale
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Old 19-01-2018, 09:29   #10
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

Last August we spotted an elephant seal in the San Juan Islands, Northwest Washington state. We later had our sighting confirmed by a local whale watch captain.
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Old 19-01-2018, 09:31   #11
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

On watch at night crossing the North Sea...

A ship with the lights flashing Blue / White / Red / Green / Blue / White ...

Had her on AIS, so I knew it was the cruise liner Braemar, but they were obviously holding a disco.

Very tricky to identify her navigation lights to see who was stand on.
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Old 19-01-2018, 09:53   #12
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

Quote:
Originally Posted by svHyLyte View Post
Roughly 40 miles offshore, halfway between Tampa Bay and Key West a few years ago, we spotted a "flashing light" westward and up-wind of us that appeared like someone flashing reflected sunlight at us with a mirror. Against the possibility that someone might be adrift in a small boat or raft, we hauled around and beat back a mile or so to discover a bundle of Mylar "Happy Birthday" balloons resting on the surface of the water, only a few still inflated. Appreciating the hazard to sea life, we managed to snag the damned thing with a boat hook, bring it aboard, puncture the still inflated balloons and stuff them in our trash bin. I hate the darned things... Balloon releases are one of the dumbest exercises I can imagine.

One of the oddest, or funniest things we've seen, was in an anchorage on St. Lucia last November. A "Native" power cruiser complete with a "dinghy/kayak" bimini.

We divertred course, and "rescued" a floating mylar baloon on our last crossing to the Bahamas thinking it was a floating boater in distress with a mirror.
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Old 19-01-2018, 10:12   #13
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

Not very dramatic, but odd.

A coconut floating by in a snow storm last November.

We are at 49N 122W.
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Old 19-01-2018, 10:25   #14
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...1&d=1516386213

Here is the craziest thing I ever found floating in the water, southwest of Grand Cayman. 300 kilos of cocaine.
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Old 19-01-2018, 10:26   #15
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Re: Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

A befuddling thing for us literal-minded types - sailing 11 months last year, we never saw Portuguese man-of-wars except twice:

- smalls ones every couple of minutes for the day before we made land in Horta, Azores, Portugal, and

- more small ones every few minutes for the day before we approached Lagos, Portugal!
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