Weirdest things you've seen on the water.

[shufti]

The 'singing sea' thread got me thinking about the weird things you see on the water or at sea.

The second weirdest thing I've seen was flashing light traveling under the surface at about 20knots going against 2-3knt current in the Great Sandy Straits. Was sitting in our flybridge after dinner when we saw it - watched approach from about 1/2 mile or so away (hard to tell as it was at night), it past us about 50m away. We watched it continue on until was out of sight. At first i thought some sort of squid etc - but it was very bright, and very fast, and didn't stop or slow - just powered on against the current until we couldn't see it anymore and light's pulsing frequency never changed.

The weirdest thing - well I'll keep that to myself for the moment, not sure if I even want to write it down.

[tkeithlu]

I've never seen anything that I could not explain, but remember a beautiful manta ray leaping just before the bow, a bottlenosed porpoise hitting my centerboard when I was a kid in a pram, and a waterspout just missing a nearby shrimpboat.

When you think about your weirdest event, remember the principle of parsimony. The working hypothesis that explains the event is the one that manages to do the job while assuming the least. That means that "drunks with a sense of humor" is a better hypothesis for explaining crop circles than "aliens sending messages" because "aliens" requires accepting that extraterrestrial beasties and their technology exist, while "drunks" just requires accepting that bored people get drunk in pubs.

So tell us about your weirdest. I promise I won't call you a blithering idiot, but can't speak for others on the forum.

[GordMay]

[GordMay]

Flip Ship Video ➥ https://youtu.be/hq8j86OenqM


The Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) is a unique oceanographic research vessel owned by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and operated by the Marine Physical Laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The vessel is a 355ft long, spoon-shaped buoy, which can be flipped from horizontal to a 90° vertical position in the ocean by pumping 700t of seawater into the ‘handle’ end while flooding air into the ‘cradle’, causing it to rise out of the sea.
The transition from horizontal to vertical positioning takes nearly 30 minutes, after which 300m of the buoy is submerged underwater, keeping the 700 long-ton mass steady, providing a stable research platform for underwater acoustics research.
The vessel is imperviable to wave motion, thus allowing researchers to conduct a range of research activities including meteorology, geophysics, physical oceanography, marine mammal research, non-acoustic ASW and laser propagation experiments in a stable environment.

[Greg Mason]

For whatever reason, a tall post is in the channel separating Nanaimo from Newcastle Island. It does mark any channel, but has been decorated with brassieres. Lots of them, well more than lots. Festooned with them. A conversation piece serving no nautical function.

[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!

[Mithril Bham]

Sea Lions jumping my wake sailing through Cattle Pass with 40 knots. Orca spy glassing five feet from my cockpit staring me in the eyes. My brother.

[redhead]

Many years ago sailing on Long Island Sound (separating New York and Connecticut & Rhode Island) we saw that we were approaching some bluffs about 5ish miles away on the Connecticut side. Now these were our home waters and we knew there were no bluffs anywhere near there.

We were mesmerized. We slowed down and cautiously sailed toward it. We never reached it, it seemed to always be the same distance away.

We came to the conclusion it was an example of Fata Morgana. I have no other explanation.

[astokel]

My weird thing also happened at night. We'd left Southampton, ON for Tobermory sailing up Lake Huron's east side. It was a very dark moonless light and I'd been sent forward by the captain to "watch for anything". About 2 hours out, I thought I spotted something just off to starboard. I crawled forward to tell the captain and we both watched as this large black space, I wouldn't say object as it seemed to lack a clear form, pass just off our starboard side. It scared the hell out of me. The captain said it was probably a container that had fallen off a ship. I didn't say anything about there being no container ships on Lake Huron.

The previous autumn, two fishermen had disappeared during a fishing sortie in their small aluminium boat. The search failed to find them as winter approached. A month after our night terror the boat was found adrift just a few kilometres from where we had been that night. Scary.

[dannc]

Once upon a time, when thongs, and I am not talking foot ware, were coming into fashion, I saw a power boat with a woman on the deck in the bow.

She had her feet towards the bow and her legs were spread... Widely. Verily.

She needed to loose a few pounds. More than a few pounds, well, quite a few pounds...

I THINK I saw a thong but it was hard to tell.

My eyes burned and the memory of those few seconds still make me shudder...



Later,
Dan

[Winf]

No twilight zone music but these were interesting.

1 - massive stingray getting danforth anchor flukes over his "nose" and towing the 16' dinghy at several knots for about 5 mins

2- wild dolphin presenting us (a group of divers and snorkelers in the water) with a really big parrotfish

3 - scary big 4 metre plus crocodile in a Kimberley river at night swimming under the boat fully lit up with bioluminescence

[Nyaminyami]

Motoring across the Balearic from Mallorca to Barcelona at a steady 9 knots- about 60 miles from Barcelona joined by a large pod (about 30 of them) of dolphins on my starboard side tracking my direction with a few taking turns to ride my bow pressure wave. After a few minutes and just before they departed from sight about half of them turned on their sides and continued with raised port-side pectoral flippers. (It resembled several shark fins). After 20 seconds or so they disappeared. I took it as a salute. Others more versed in 'dolphin speak' might tell me it was a message -'get a new boat'.
I was on my own. I enjoyed their company.

[Sailorman Ed]

About 30 years ago, we were in Long Island Sound coming back from Block Island when off to the side of us, the water started bulging up, a large area, quite smooth. It was a sub returning to the sub base in CT.

[skyline]

Elephant Seal between Sucia, and Matia, U.S. San Juan Islands.

[C Paton-Gay]

Night sailing southbound north of Cedros which is a very busy traffic lane for freighter traffic which tend not to respond to CPA requests or even acknowledge VHF traffic. After multiple attempts to reach one of these and making a number of various course changes to stand clear .... I realized that I had been hailing a rising Venus for a very tense half hour!

Another time I was being targeted by a rogue torpedo 600 NM offshore. It was aiming absolute midship. You could see the bio glowing as it approached at huge speed only to pass under my keel. Definitely a sphincter tightening moment as the Humpback passed by!