How many have seen a UFO (unidentified floating object)?

[caradow]

One night on a recent sail from St. Lucia to Venezuela we came upon a very fast moving object on the water.
It was approaching us on our starboard and far enough away that I could not see the hull shape but it did have running lights and a strobe light that appeared to be at the top of the vessel.
It was moving extremely fast which I would estimate to be at least 30 knots or more because of the short time we were in sight of it.
The more puzzling thing is that it was on my watch when I saw it visually without any advance notice on Radar! Once I saw it I tried in vain to get it to come up on my Radar screen without success.
Then it was gone.
We were sailing on a broad reach in approximately 15-18 knots of wind with a typical sea state for those conditions.
Our position at the time was approximately 200 miles off the coast of St. Lucia in the middle of the Caribbean.
This has continued to brother me and have thoughts of a surfaced sub perhaps or some sort of stealth military boat but really have no knowledge of what sort of "stealth" vessels are out there.
So....I was wondering if anyone else has ever had a similar experience.

[barnakiel]

Sounds like drug smugglers to me.

b.

[Crimea Cruiser]

Probably not your UFO, but just an example of stuff that is out there. U.S. Navy Set To Junk 157 Million Dollar Stealth Ship*|*NewsPirates/From the Quarterdeck

[noelex 77]

Hovercraft/hydrofoils are required to show a yellow flashing light. The speed would be correct.
The military have the technology to disapear from radar and they use it, but why they would do so and display running lights I don't know.

A small hovercraft would represent a poorish radar target and may have been just lost in clutter. Some military do use hovercraft as landing vehicles.

[rebel heart]

When I was in the Navy there were some neat littoral combat vessels that frequently ran darkened ship, especially special operation stuff. The Mark 5 SOC has a really low radar signature, and GAU-17 cannons. I think you'd be in weapons range before a radar blip would show up.

Do you remember the color of the strobe light? If it was amber/orange you might have seen a surfaced sub, although 30 knots on the surface is a little quick and it's odd that they'd be moving that close and that fast to a surface contact.

Also consider the depth of the water. Very few subs would operate in anything less than 400' unless they were intentionally headed to a berth or something of the sort.

[caradow]

The strobe was white and the speed was only an estimate, maybe too generous or maybe not generous enough, I am not sure.
I have seen subs surface off Block Island on their way into their Groton Base and have always been impressed with their surface speed.
They are also very intimidating!

[caradow]

BTW if I ever come upon a craft like what Crimea Cruiser posted in the middle of the ocean at night I would probably start worshiping L Ron Hubbard!!