Ufo encounters at sea

So I work at sea, and recently have had two sightings of strange lights in the sky.

First one was On the midnight to 0400 watch, we are coming about 20 miles off the coast of south east Cuba, heading north towards the east coast where I spotted a white light in the sky about 12 degrees vertically and ahead of us. 

It looked like a bright star at first that suddenly appears, then I remarked that it started to look more like a planes landing lights when they turn on. That’s when it started to move much too fast for a plane, from left to right across the sky. Then it dimmed and was not visible with the naked eye. 

I was busy with something else when I seen it again a minute later, pretty much in the same place in the sky that it first had appeared. Same story, bright like a star/landing light and then moved in the same direction. This time it kept its brightness and moved back at the same fast speed to where it started.

That’s when I got pretty suspicious because it then dimmed and with binoculars, I could still see it, but it was, for lack of a better word, “jumping” around a spot in the sky. Juddering, shimmying, bouncing about this bit of the sky.

I know that Guantanamo is nearby so one could reason its some kind of advanced drone. But tonight on the same watch, now off the eastern seaboard of the Atlantic, 200 miles off intact, I seen the same phenomena again.

I remember Ryan graves or someone saying that the us navy were reporting phenomena off the eastern seaboard on a near daily basis, so perhaps I’ve seen a genuine UAP!

I’m not able to get video or anything like that due to company policy on mobile devices, but I thought I’d share with you all. 

If I see any more or am able to get more information, I shall post more 🙂

Thanks for the interesting report.

I was wondering when I read this bit,

"Juddering, shimmying, bouncing about this bit of the sky."

that sounds a bit like an optical distortion - for example if there was some sort of exhaust vent pushing out hot gases between yourself and the thing you are attempting to observe, there would be turbulence and air of varying densities which might cause such an effect.

I suppose things like this become more tangible when there are multiple reports from different observers in separate locations, or when something is so close that its shape and features become visible.

As it is it seems to be a kind of open-ended question without anything solid to pin it down. Or maybe that's how I'm re-interpreting what you said.

[Ninshub]

Thanks for the report diverdown - keep 'em coming if there's more!

The only thing I have seen that sounds like your description turned out to be a seagull with the evening sun reflecting from its belly.  It's unbelievable how reflective gulls are.  They look just like bright lights when reflecting the sun.  Was it close to dawn when you saw it or closer to midnight?

[Ninshub]

I remember Ryan graves or someone saying that the us navy were reporting phenomena off the eastern seaboard on a near daily basis,

Yes it seems it was Ryan Graves. From his 2021 interview with 60 Minutes.

These photographs were taken in 2019 in the same area. The Pentagon confirms these are images of objects it can't identify. Lieutenant Graves told us pilots training off the Atlantic Coast see things like that all the time.

Ryan Graves: Every day. Every day for at least a couple years.

Bill Whitaker: Wait a minute, every day for a couple of years?

Ryan Graves: Uh-huh.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-militar...021-05-16/

The only thing I have seen that sounds like your description turned out to be a seagull with the evening sun reflecting from its belly.  It's unbelievable how reflective gulls are.  They look just like bright lights when reflecting the sun.  Was it close to dawn when you saw it or closer to midnight?

This was around 0300, so pitch black, dead of night type of thing. 

that sounds a bit like an optical distortion - for example if there was some sort of exhaust vent pushing out hot gases between yourself and the thing you are attempting to observe, there would be turbulence and air of varying densities which might cause such an effect.


I suppose things like this become more tangible when there are multiple reports from different observers in separate locations, or when something is so close that its shape and features become visible.

As it is it seems to be a kind of open-ended question without anything solid to pin it down. Or maybe that's how I'm re-interpreting what you said.

You're welcome typoz.

I agree, It's not much on it's own. Essentially it's an anecdotal report for everyone else on the forum, but when it happens to you, it's quite cool. I suspect many of those who observe UAP have a similar personal experience. Anyway, this we all know from years of the subject etc etc. Stronger evidence is needed for sure and I understand the apathy with just reports of this stuff. 

Regarding the exhaust vent thing, our bridge is at the bow so the exhaust stacks are behind us. One could also postulate temperature inversions of the atmosphere refracting the light too. I doubt it, but it's always a possibility until you can measure it better than just with the old mark 1 eyeball. It's unfortunate, but unless the lights are closer next time, I cannot really do much else other than observe, and let you guys know of anything else that I see out at sea. We also didn't pick up anything on our radar (we sometimes are able to pick up lower flying aircraft at close range, not usually anything further than 12 miles approximately), so based on this it was probably more than 12 miles away.

Yes it seems it was Ryan Graves. From his 2021 interview with 60 Minutes.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-militar...021-05-16/

That's what I was thinking of 

Yea, based on what I've seen so far, these definitely seem odd to me. For context, I've not seen anything like this before, and I've spent in total over the 5 years of my job, a year at sea. Not a whole lot of experience of watching the night sky but it's something I guess. But mostly what's interesting to me, is that any light at night time or anything that catches the attention, any watchkeeper immediately goes to observe what it is, and we all agreed it was fairly strange.

So, it is what it is. I wouldn't be surprised if they are military drones, but more than 200 nm out to sea, I'm not sure if that is possible with the range and what I seen from their manoeuvrability. But then again, I have such limited data and information that anything is probably possible at this point.