Craziest things and objects encountered on the water

[a64pilot]

Party house in Panama City. This is a floating house boat that gets towed around.

[meirriba]

1. Off the Israeli shore, maybe 6-7 miles out, on a leisurely daysail, we have spotted a dead cow floating on its back. We have issued a sailing alert on the VHF to warn other vessels against collision.
2. Middle of the Atlantic, over 1,000 nm from nearest shore, a lone soccer ball. Presumably fell off a passing ship.
3. Off Cyprus, a swarm of small squids, flew jet fashion out of the water and landed on board of our boat. We assumed later that they were on a run from some predator. Took a long time and much effort to clean the black ink spots from the deck.
4. Also off Cyprus, a flock of birds, maybe 40 or more, landed on the boat flying from a storm (which did come after the birds...). The birds tried to enter the saloon (some succeeded and we hunted them inside to get them out into the cockpit). After some time we were visited by a hawk. The hawk dived down, caught one of the invaders, took it leisurely to the bow for a sea picknik, then flew out.
In the morning, we have found several dead of exposure birds laying around the boat and the rest of the flock disappeared.
5. Off the Tel-Aviv beach, 5 dolphins joined us while we sailed a beach cat. The dolphins swam with us for over 30 minutes (until we turned back). During the encounter, they performed sort of circus show, jumping in twos to somersault at both sides of the catamaran, while one was swimming between the bows and other exercises. Every few minutes, the guys changed places, seemingly to allow every individual to show off what it can do. They swam occasionaly within petting distance.

[a64pilot]

In Cyprus while diving the Zenobia outside of the wreck before we went inside I heard a whirring, turned around and right in front of me was an honest to God Yellow Submarine not ten ft away, with a bunch of faces pressed in the windows. Thought sure I was Narked bad, but didn’t feel Iike it.
When I surfaced of course I had to ask what the heck was that, seems there is a tourist Submarine that is yellow.

[Cheechako]

Freeboard... or is it Freebird?

[kristjan]

Tug boat towing a building on a barge, a bank complete with doors and ATM, we chatted and he was mid trip to Guantanamo from USA, I was doing key west from virgins. He invited me to deposit money if I wanted to.

[Sostratus]

It was the maiden voyage on my new to me boat, sailing down the Hudson River. I’m on a tight timeline to round Battery Park to catch an incoming tide to push me up through Hell’s Gate and into Long Island Sound.

I’m about a mile south of the Tappan Zee Bridge and 30 yards off my starboard beam I see a human arm floating in the river. As I’m reaching for my handheld radio, I have the horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Aside from having to witness the horror of a severed arm, I’m going to spend hours with the Coast Guard and Police.

I spin the boat around to take a closer look before I hail the authorities. As I pull along side the floating object it is in fact an arm, a mannequin's arm.

We laughed about it for the remainder of the passage.

[Dave_S]

I saw this thing being towed by a boat around Arlie Beach, absolutely no idea what it is. Also saw a large fridge box, maybe off a trawler for keeping fish/prawns cold. It had no lid with no change to the auto pilot we came within 100m of it. It was big enough to cause some damage.

[Sailshabby]

A number of years ago heading out for a day on the water, a crew members hat blew overboard, lost. Hours later, on the way back in... yep! Big sea, small world!

[Djarraluda]

Viking longboat in English Channel, misty morning and light breeze when suddenly out of the murk came...
also seen a Kraken, but could not find camera in time. Well, someone had to post that one !

[Hasbeen]

If you ever get to the Solomons, New Guinea & Indonesia waters, you have to be careful of logs. Many logging leases are in areas only accessible by sea. The logs are exported direct from the site, by specialist log ships.


These ships anchor off shore. The logs are lashed into huge rafts with wire rope, & towed out to the ships, which self load with their deck cranes. They always drop a few, which are often not retrieved.


These logs from 2 up to 4 or 5 Ft diameter & 60+ feet long are bad enough, floating awash, but it gets worse. As they waterlog they become heavy at one end, then float vertically. In a sea they don't move much, so will be floating from a few feet submerged under a crest to a few feet above water in a trough.


To hit one of these in a yacht or small ship is almost as dangerous as hitting a reef. I have only seen one, but it was a nasty thing to see.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by PaulinOz

This motored past us while anchored in the river at Port Macquarie.

I guess the conversation went something along these lines,

" What do you mean you are going fishing with your mates, either I go as well or you do not going at all."

Honey, she followed me home. Can we keep her?

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Here in the pac nw I too have seen bear and more often deer swimming between islands.

Not intentional but we actually hit a deer on the Illinois River. I was down below when I heard a thump. Came up to see what happened and Tammy was looking back at it. Circled back to see the deer climb out and run off with no apparent harm.

Going up the ICW, we saw a guy over a few days running it in a canoe (we stopped for a couple days so he caught up) with all his possessions in black garbage bags. Later we heard he was mad that the marina had a 30' minimum on the price for a slip.

[valhalla360]

Another Illinois River one: We are coming out of a marina and the rip-rap channel is only about 25-30' wide (we are 14' beam). Tammy is on the bow watching when all of the sudden repeated slamming of the hull. We think we've run aground only to see asian carp taking flight all around the boat. Had to go get a fresh pair of shorts once clear of the channel.

And finally, not sure if it counts as "being on the water". We are in Toledo Beach Marina on the west end of Lake Erie and there is a good wind out of the west. Around 10pm, the lines are creaking, so I go out and check and the water is down a bit. I adjust the lines and go to bed. A couple hours later, more creaking and line adjusting. By morning, we are sitting on the bottom in a water-less marina and the dock is over my head (I'm 6'2"). We had to get a rope ladder out to get up onto the dock. When we went out to look at the lake, it was a good half mile out from the normal location.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

...And finally, not sure if it counts as "being on the water". We are in Toledo Beach Marina on the west end of Lake Erie and there is a good wind out of the west. Around 10pm, the lines are creaking, so I go out and check and the water is down a bit. I adjust the lines and go to bed. A couple hours later, more creaking and line adjusting. By morning, we are sitting on the bottom in a water-less marina and the dock is over my head (I'm 6'2"). We had to get a rope ladder out to get up onto the dock. When we went out to look at the lake, it was a good half mile out from the normal location.

Sounds like a huge seiche Val. There must have been some serious weather on the other side of the lake. All the Great Lakes have these things, although Lake Erie is particularly sensitive due to its shallowness.

One night I was sitting in my borrowed Mirage 26 up a river on Lake Superior. A massive thunder storm system was raging far in the distance. Suddenly I feel the keel land on the bottom, and then the boat fell over. Luckily it fell towards the dock. I hopped out and we were high and dry. Wish I had got pics...

[Calif.Ted]

Came around Palos Verde Point toward San Pedro early morning fishing in a light fog and saw "The Flying Dutchman", tattered sails, but still sailing quite fast, turned out they were filming scenes for one of those Disney pirate movies.
My friend asked "So what do you think that is ?"