Ghost Stories

[MTrejchel]

I'm trying to keep my girlfriend interested in sailing while I work on getting my boat in the water. In Cruisers World there was a short ghost story that she enjoyed and I know she like watching horror movies. Who has a ghost story to tell? Something other than the ones you see on the History Channel all the time.

Mike

[Mariness]

Are you looking for hauntings?
Some of the best known "haunted" boat stories:
Queen Mary, Star of India, Mary Celeste, Flying Dutchman, USS Lexington, USS Hornet, USS North Carolina, Great Eastern, a German WWII U-Boot (can't remember the #). Plenty of others too, I would imagine, but that should keep her busy for a while. Some of them have had books written, some are still around to visit.
Wrote a paper on these things in college - the history and how we perceive them is pretty interesting.

[MarkJ]

We have a bloody ghost!!

Whenever I pull the lid off a beer the frekkin Ghost breaks something so I have to go fix it.

[speakeasy]

Well, if it's a horror movie about sailboats for women, certainly this one comes to mind. I don't know if it would aid your cause however.

[MTrejchel]

No, I'm not looking for stories about the Queen Mary or The Star of India or any links to scary sailing movies. I'm looking for something less Hollywood and more personal. Has anyone run into something that made your shook you. Not something you caused because you had one to many or something you didn't do after the wife told you to. I'm looking for something you couldn't explain. Something personal, not something you heard happened to a sailor 200 years ago. Basically, an orginal yarn, a good story, Something other than a re-hash of the same things we all have heard since we were 8.

[forsailbyowner]

We've had several instances of bad occurances at Egmont key. There was a quarantine hospital on the island at one time. The freakiest was during a storm in the 80s. We tucked behind the island after having the mast underwater twice entering the NW channel. The radio turned on by itself at top volume with a song screaming. "DO YOU WANT TO DIE" over and over and wouldn't shut off till the fuse was pulled.

Another time we were anchored in smooth calm in the middle of the night and a wave swept over the boat. We took on some water and broke a stay. Two other boats were thrown above the high tide line. By the time we got out of the bunk the water was smooth again.

Another episode again at egmont was relayed to us by a pastor that was staying at same marina. He told us he woke up to a baby crying. Then the seas kicked up suddenly , then a cabinet came open and gashed his head, at which time the crying turned to laughing. He told us this story with a somber almost frightened demeanor.

[boatman61]

Dunno about ghost stories... I've heard voices at sea miles from anywhere but... things in the sky... I've seen loads.
The most recent was last August.. I was passing Finisterre at night, about 15 miles offshore when a pulsating luminous green rugby ball shape passed over the boat at altitude travelling east to west... I thought at first it may have been the Space Shuttle heading back but the next evening when I'd reached Baiona I rang a friend and learnt it was not due back for another couple of days..
Going back even further, in 1986 on the return overnight trip to the UK from Cherbourg I saw three triangular shaped sets of lights way up high.
I called my GF to come and look... as we watched they performed some almost instantaneous maneuvers across the sky... a while later after she'd got her head down and I was alone... the lights of Cherbourg having dropped below the horizon a couple of hours earlier and I could see the loom of St Catherines light.
A searchlight beamed down onto the waters a small distance away... Hello I thought.. is Portland Squadron doing anti submarine exercises...
The beam then proceeded to sweep across the waters toward me... totally soundless... no throb of the usual WASP helicopter engine.. just this beam of light which reached the boat and lit us up in its glare...
The next thing I knew the tiller was banging against my head... thinking I'd fallen asleep I sat up fast and looked forward to check all was well...
Unbelievably.. sat on the boom, leaning against the belly of the sail was a little figure with enormous eyes watching me and laughing...
Thinking I was still asleep and dreaming I shook my head, rubbed my eyes and, when I looked up again he was gone...
I heaved a sigh of relief... I was not going round the bend... ok, check position... stood up and looked aft before heading below to get my GPS and lo and behold... there were the lights of Cherbourg twinkling on the horizon...
A look at my watch showed an hour had passed since the last time I'd checked, no way could my little 24ftr have covered the distance involved...
Have I an explanation...?? NO
Did it really happen...?? YES
Was there really a little person on the boat...?? I DON'T KNOW.....
But I do know I'm no longer a skeptic about UFO's

[Christian Van H]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Have I an explanation...?? NO
Did it really happen...?? YES
Was there really a little person on the boat...?? I DON'T KNOW.....
But I do know I'm no longer a skeptic about UFO's

Okayyyyyyyy... Soooooooo... I notice you didn't mention an anal probe. That's a good thing. Any chance there had been any drinking aboard that night?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Christian Van H

Okayyyyyyyy... Soooooooo... I notice you didn't mention an anal probe. That's a good thing. Any chance there had been any drinking aboard that night?

Nope... no drinking... don't drink at sea... except solo voyaging when I'll sip a sundowner...
Did suddenly start having freaky thoughts about ecology, sustainable lifestyles etc but everyone thought I was talking crap...
Before that its was mainly Motorbikes, Sex, Drugs n Rock n Roll....

[Mariness]

What about Slocum, and his late-night visitor?

[Ocean Girl]

Out in the Gulf at about midnight I passed a big 25 foot glowing ball. It was about 20 feet down and about 15 feet away from the boat. At first I thought it was a sleeping whale but I realized whales are not perfectly round. Hmm I think, that sure was strange. Then about fifteen minutes later I pass another glowing ball right off my beam, it was smaller say about fifteen feet in diameter and seemed much deeper down in the water. The glow was the same glow you see with phosphorescence but it was as bright as a light bulb (kinda like a greenish light bulb with freckles of dimmer spots) it didn't change brightness or pulse as you would see with a bioluminescence when disturbed. It was so bright I could see it at least a half mile away. The weirdest part is it stayed perfectly still though the wave action was a bit rough. To this day I am not sure what I saw... maybe giant jellyfish? aliens hanging out before the big invasion? A unmanned sub (s) ?

This isnt so strange but it was creepy! One night I was becalmed about 400 miles offshore with the full moon hanging low right off my bow (beautiful!). I had been becalmed for two days so the seas were perfectly flat with not a breath of wind. The boat suddenly shifted and turned an exact 180 within her own boat length (took about 6 seconds). I now had the full moon off my stern. It felt like someone had attached a painter to the bow and just spun her around (a 37foot 20 thousand pound boat). I saw no currents in the water or funny waves just quiet flat water as far as the eye can see. Very creepy.

Erika

[Mariness]

I haven't seen it myself, but I've heard other people report the same thing as OceanGirl - big glowing circles or spheres. They didn't know what it was either but used the same exact description: First thought a whale going through some bioluminescence, then realized whales aren't round. Very curious..

[Ocean Girl]

WOW! glad to know I am not the only one that has seen these things, was it in the Gulf of Mexico too? very interesting.
E

[Mariness]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

WOW! glad to know I am not the only one that has seen these things, was it in the Gulf of Mexico too? very interesting.
E

Yeah I think so!
There's gotta be some kind of reasonable explanation...until then I'm going with: the aliens didn't know how to swim.

[Ocean Girl]

Originally Posted by Mariness

Yeah I think so!
There's gotta be some kind of reasonable explanation...until then I'm going with: the aliens didn't know how to swim.

He he, no I think they are seeking out the most intelligent species and God knows they are not on land