I really like USOs and read all the reports I can find. Ran across this and I think it’s truly fabulous! It is quite different from the usual sightings and I just had to share. I speak especially of the first incident, that’s what’s got me going, but the second one’s cool, too. Visit the post for even more goodness…

Have you ever witnessed something offshore or elsewhere you can’t explain

PiratesCut
Scalloper
Member
Registered: 8/19/2021
Location: Low Earth Orbit
Mood: Salty

posted on Sep, 18 2021 @ 09:35 AM
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I want to thank MykeNukem for giving me the idea and inspiration to write this after reading the OP, “101 years old and still hauling Lobster Pots”.

I’ll give two examples…..🤪

Let me try to explain and draw the best picture I can for you of one absolutely insane incident that happened back in 92 or 93 I think.

There were quite a few boats working the bottom within a 12 mile radius when the VHF suddenly BLEW UP with a frantic call.

It began with someone keying the mike on the VHF radio and literally yelling, “what is that, does anyone see this bubble of water over here?”

We were far enough offshore so no land based VHF could possibly have heard all of this. VHF radio has limited range unlike the single side band radios we also had onboard.
We pretty much used channel 64 while working offshore to transmit fleet-wide to those in range.
Channel 16 is the official Coast Gaurd channel for emergencies.

We all used to make collect phone calls home over the VHF radio through the Marine Operator when homeward bound at trips end to let loved ones know we were safe and on our way in but we had to be close enough to land for the marine operator to be able pick us up.

VHF stands for Very High Frequency.

OK, so try to picture in your mind a flat white sheet on your bed with a basketball under it and the ball rolling around the bed under the sheet but while it does so it does not disturb the sheet in any other way than simply lifting it up.
No wrinkles, no folds, nothing but a rounded lump moving around the bed.

Now take that same picture and apply it to a calm ocean surface. See it?

This lump or bubble raced all around for about 20 minutes, probably more, time seemed to slow. It passed by our boat about thirty yards off and it appeared to be just a smooth lump maybe 8 feet high or so.

The numbers here are not important really so try to focus on the meat on the story.

This bubble or lump passed between two boats that were towing past each other by a distance of at most 150 yards and it then circled them three times then moving away it circled maybe a half dozen other boats that were within a mile or so of each other.

For a while it traveled back and forth with no apparent reason for the directions it chose.

This bubble did not change direction as one would expect on the water but rather it would be going one direction and then it would just be going in another direction. It was so weird!!!

The craziest thing this lump did was come straight at one boat from it’s starboard side and as it approached it slowly lowered into the water and disappeared then it slowly surfaced again as it moved away from the boats port side and off to the East where disappeared forever.

Everyone agreed this lump of water was doing maybe 20-25 knots the entire time. We all compared notes for five or ten minutes then the entire subject was just dropped like a red hot rock.

I’ve never again heard it talked about around the docks, not once, not ever. I certainly didn’t bring it up.

It’s weird now as I look back, everyone just clammed up, period.

It scared the crap out of me and the other guys awake on our boat who got to witness it I can tell you that! Five of us.

Maybe that’s why it was never spoken of again, at least to my knowledge it wasn’t.
Maybe that and the fear of being laughed at, becoming laughing stocks amongst the fleet, IDK.

Well, that’s one story….believe what you will….🤪

Another time, way up on the edge during a winter blow in the wee hours of morning and in the glare of the powerful sodium overhead floodlights that bathed the decks in an ugly orange/yellow light, I saw for just a split second, I thought I saw what looked like a Merman just under the face of a smooth wave between the patches of ocean froth the wind and waves create.

I could see the webbed fingers of both hands and a ridge on it’s head that kind of reminded me of a rooster.
It’s eyes BLAZED WHITE when we seemed to notice each other, then poof, it was gone.

Whether real or not, that was Creepy AF!

Yeah, one see’s weird chit offshore.

Especially in fog!

Phew……seriously weird stuff!

Didja dig it?