Weirdest things you've seen on the water.

[Clivevon]

Killer logs. On a business trip to Vancouver many years ago a group of us chartered a 50 ft sport fishing boat (with skipper) to go salmon fishing offshore. It was a warm calm day & the fish weren't biting but the beer was going down well when one of our party (OK, me) spotted some shapes on the horizon - looked like the fins of a pod of Orcas which I believe frequent these waters - so off we went to investigate..
Turns out the logging industry loses a lot of timber from the rivers around there so these weren't the interesting killer whales we thought would liven up our afternoon, but logs which had stumps of branches sticking up.. An easy mistake but it took a while to live down..

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by AZUS

One clear night while crossing the Atlantic in an eastward direction, my wife - who was on watch - woke me in a panic to show me a incredibly bright white light on the horizon off our starboard bow. She was not seeing anything on either radar or GPS and did not know how to account for the threat.

I told her it was the moon rising and had a good laugh at her expense until to nights later, I was jolted by a bright white light appearing in the same location - I also had succumbed to luna-cy!

I have seen several times when the moon coming over a cloudy horizon looks just like a red flare. Enough to get your attention!

[wholybee]

Once while I was on watch on a dark night, the whole boat lit up very bright, from behind me. I turned around and saw what looked like a green flare, only about 50 ft away and 50 feet in the air. It was there for a good 20 seconds. I later concluded that it wasn't a flare, but probably a meteor, and much further away than the 50ft it seemed.

[Clivevon]

Originally Posted by wholybee

I have seen several times when the moon coming over a cloudy horizon looks just like a red flare. Enough to get your attention!

Ahh, the moon rising... What follows is just a story. I'm just making it up, OK? No breach of the Official Secrets Act is involved. At all.

I have this sailing friend - even older than me. Very clever chap - worked at Aldermaston (where Britain built its Bomb) & also Fylingdales in Yorkshire - part of the DEW line to give us 4 minutes warning (USA got a bit longer) long long ago. He does like his late night gins in the saloon, though (& so do I).

So he tells this story one time about a full scale alert he witnessed one night at Fylingdales. The radar is picking up a major Soviet ICBM launch. False alarm of course - so its double checked. No, still there. Still there. Still there, still going up. S**t s**t s**t. Still effing there.

He says we got to within a very few minutes of launching a nuclear counter strike before someone realised the radar had picked up the moon rising in the east - over Russia.

You've heard this story before, of course. Its on Google. Could be complete b****cks. Wonder if its true, though? My friend was very authoritative....

[CassidyNZ]

Sailing north west of Madagascar heading for Seychelles, we saw a line on the surface of the water from horizon to horizon which had totally different water conditions - glassy smooth on the far side, quite strong wind ripples on our side. We were nervous enough to take down the sails and motor across the line. When we did, nothing. Never explained it.

On the same trip, sailing along with 10kn of wind, lightly rippled sea, the water surface suddenly became very turbulent, rough and noisy. Boat speed on the instruments remained unchanged, on the GPS we lost most of our headway. Seemingly it was an upwelling, an underwater current being thrust to the surface by an undersea mountain or other seabed irregularity. Explainable but still worrisome until you figure it out.

Once, middle of the night between San Diego and Nuku Hiva, the sea came alive with flashing coloured light below the surface. So compelling that I woke the crew to come and have a look. It went on for an hour or more. It wasn’t until some years later we discovered (from a Nat Geo program on the telly) that it was giant squid, probably 50 or 60 metres below the surface who flash light at each other as a means of communication. Spectacular to watch, never seen again.

Lastly, the contentious “green flash” that many believe is a figment of one’s imagination but seen simultaneously by all three people on board. I’ll always argue that it is a real phenomenon, not the result of too much rum. I spent every clear evening videoing the horizon at sunset but never saw it again.

[DMF Sailing]

Hard to say this is weird per se, but the anachronistic juxtaposition of 19th-century wooden vessels on Boston Harbor and the passenger jets landing at Logan is at least crazy cool, especially when that vessel is the frigate U.S.S. Constitution.

Also freaky is when the fog limits that jet to a shadow that whistles overhead.

[boatman61]

Seen many things in the night skies mid Atlantic but the two that stick in my head most are 1/ traveling from Cherbourg to Poole I saw a formation of lights overhead grouped in a triangle that hovered then in a blink moved East by maybe 20 degrees then back W 40 degrees then forwards, came to a stop before shooting straight upwards and disappearing.
2nd was as I was approaching Finisterre in the early hours maybe 4nm to my S when a florescent green object shaped like a rugby ball flashed past high overhead and disappeared to the W of me.. looked for reports of a meteor when I got to Baiona the following day but no reports of any sightings of UFO's..

[Fore and Aft]

I spotted a young lady berthing their yacht in a G-string bikini at our marina. The weird thing was my wife's reaction when I vaulted over our lifelines to go help handle their lines. True story, I just didn't want their gelcoat getting scratched.
Cheers

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by CassidyNZ

... Lastly, the contentious “green flash” that many believe is a figment of one’s imagination but seen simultaneously by all three people on board. I’ll always argue that it is a real phenomenon, not the result of too much rum. I spent every clear evening videoing the horizon at sunset but never saw it again.

I’ve seen the “green flash” numerous times, at sunset, but, never at sunrise.

Is the green flash real?
➥ Is the green flash real? (Beginner) - Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer

Observed colors of “green” flashes
➥ https://aty.sdsu.edu/explain/obs_colors.html

Catching the elusive 'green flash'
➥ https://www.aaas.org/catching-elusive-green-flash

Red Sunset & Green Flash
➥ Red Sunset, Green Flash

[billb784]

Weird/wonderful: my first charter in the Keys. An older 25’ sloop from a mom n pop marina in Key Largo sailing toward Key West, blowing 20, steep sea running 3 -4’, broad reach, single reef in, wishing there was another. A gust increased our heel and I shifted to the windward side. Just as I turn around, not 3’ from the gunnel, a huge Ray flew out of the top of a wave at our stern, completely clear of the water and entered the top of the next wave 15, 20 ‘ ahead, without a sound or splash. Flew right past us. I remember thinking - did I really just see that!?

[NorthCoastJoe]

Not boat related. Coming out of Costco one night as we turned to the west we saw a huge fire in the direction of our home.

This is after several years of close wildland fires in our region. ( Under evac orders 3 times in two years )
It looked just like the fires we had seen from our deck in the distance.

It took a bit to realize we were seeing the sun set.

[Noah-SVGenesis]

Off the coast of Hawaii last year, I saw 10-15 stars all in a perfect line about 10 degrees above the horizon. After picking my jaw up off the deck, I became immediately superstitious and avoided anything remotely dangerous for the remainder of the night. Upon landfall and a conversation with a friend, I was informed that it wasn't a Ill omen but merely the starlink satellites.

This November off Oahu we witnessed what was said to be a unexpected Soviet Union cosmos satellite from the 80’s re-enter and burn up. It entered a couple hands over the horizon and streaked in slow motion all the way to over the opposite horizon. It left a trail that was visible for 5-6 minutes, and at the apex we could hear it rumbling and saw pieces breaking up. Looked like an apocalyptic event from a movie. Way too large and close for comfort during the event.

[Group9]

Strange things I've seen usually involve marine life. Like once, crossing Tampa Bay, when it was wall to wall stingrays, and it was like the boat was pushing them out of the way, they were so thick around the surface. I'd never seen it before, and I've never seen it since.

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by NorthCoastJoe

Not boat related. Coming out of Costco one night as we turned to the west we saw a huge fire in the direction of our home.

This is after several years of close wildland fires in our region. ( Under evac orders 3 times in two years )
It looked just like the fires we had seen from our deck in the distance.

It took a bit to realize we were seeing the sun set.

It's quite amazing how our brains interpret what we see based on what we expect to see.

One night I was startled awake by someone on deck shining a very bright flashlight through the window beside my berth - and blinding me. With only two of us aboard and my partner sound asleep beside me I knew something was amiss and rushed, naked, on deck with my big Maglite flashlight - prepared for anything! (yah, right!) only to find it was the full moon on a beautiful clear night.

[Apollo366]

OK shufti, what was it you were to afraid of being foolish to whare with us?

I once saw a very bright flare come out of the sea off Coronado, CA about 2 mi off, went to look see, 40' 30knt fishing boat, and absolutly nothing there. This was 3-4 mins after sighting it. Too shallow for subs in the Coronado Roads, but thought maybe SEALS training?? I was expecting to see safety boats in the area after we decided it must have been SEALS.

BTW, middle of the day in bright sunshine.