I Long for the Sea for the Sea Again
People who alive on dry out land have plenty of strange experiences, just when you motility onto the sea, things can get even weirder. The bounding main creatures can be odd, and the houseboat and marina neighbors can be odder even so.
If y'all haven't lived on the ocean yourself, you might be surprised to learn that bizarre escapades are fairly common. Or is it that living on the h2o makes people love to spin yarns? You exist the estimate when people who have lived on the ocean share tales of their weirdest encounters.
A Lose-Lose Situation
This guy lost money to a bunch of SEALs at a poker game i nighttime while nosotros were in the Persian Gulf. One of the SEALs tells him, "Don't worry about it, dude. You can become the coin dorsum tomorrow night." The guy in my partition thought, "Yeah, we're miles from the port. He's not going anywhere."
That night, the SEAL team went over the side of the transport for their ops and never came back. Dude was angry.
What A Transport Looks Like Post-Pirates
Doing a Navy deployment in the Gulf of Aden, we get a call because a merchant's vessel had seen a big-ish (100+ pes long) angling vessel that appeared to exist adrift.
Nosotros motion closer. The vessel isn't responding to any hails or transmitting any AIS signature.
Boarding squad strap on body armor and weapons to go bank check it out. We board the ship. Bullet holes everywhere with metric tons of dried blood. Looked similar some horror show. Handprints and everything.
All of the electronics had been stripped from the transport, likewise as any log books.
Nosotros accept a bunch of pictures and have our medical guys take samples of all the blood to send off to intel globe.
Never did go word on what the story with that ship was, as we had no need to know and it'south hard getting info out of the intel black hole without a need-to-know.
Snorkeling Side by side To A 40-Human foot Driblet
I was in the Navy and was on a detachment to Okinawa for a week. A friend and I went snorkeling at a embankment close to Kadena Air force base. It was amazingly beautiful with all of the coral and wildlife in the water. Then we decided to exercise it at night. I remember swishing around my swoop light like it was a lightsaber; I was trying to see anything and everything. We didn't run into anything out of the ordinary simply snorkeling near a 40 drop-off in the darkness with simply a dive calorie-free and a small blade was sort of terrifying.
Watching A Tempest Approach At 100 Knots With Nowhere To Become
I used to work on fishing boats in the Bering Sea as a fisheries biologist. I would be out on boats anywhere from two days to two months. The longest trip I ever had on a boat was 72 days from the fourth dimension nosotros left port until the fourth dimension we came back to port.
The creepiest thing I e'er saw was basically a hurricane that had formed over several days and was headed right for us. We were out where information technology was relatively calm and in those conditions, you lot can't see any state around you and you merely await at the horizon and realize you lot are over 200 miles from land and are really on your own. We could run across the storm on radar about 75 miles away and watching the mode that information technology was moving, seeing the winds and rain from the far abroad was eery. As it approached, you could see more than and more details about how the current of air and rain were moving and see the waves increasing in size and strength. We kept fishing though because we were too far from anywhere to hibernate in an inlet or anything, and then nosotros rode out the tempest at ocean. Seas got to well-nigh 30′ with 100-knot winds, probably the scariest affair I've been through at body of water.
The Sunfish Was Like, 'Non My Circus'
I was sea kayaking off Nova Scotia and the seas had gotten a large neat of over i meter. You would lose sight of other kayaks as they bobbed into the wave trough. There was no place to land for a campground for the night, and so we were forced to paddle until nosotros got to a cove that we had marked on the map.
And then we advisedly made our way forth the coast. It was white knuckle, and no one wants to do a rescue if someone capsized. I didn't drink any water for two to three hours, I was so focused.
At 1 point, I looked over and there was this huge sunfish floating next to me. The water was warm considering of a recent tropical storm and this animal was just sitting at that place in these rough seas.
There was no time to examine it or tell my friends because of the conditions, and then I moved on. Nosotros had a dodgy landing in a tough military camp and got stuck there for two nights, cutting our trip short.
The Stalker Had Whiskers And Flippers
When I was 13 or then, I lived on a floating "firm" for a few months. It was a plastic affair my stepdad made to live on and made a place for me to sleep when we (my mom and I) moved onto it. Everything was exposed, industrial plastic sheeting was put up for walls, but nil was fully closed in.
One night, I woke up. What sounded like slightly wet footsteps were walking effectually the docks around me. I was horrified. I lived nowhere about people. Yous had to get to this place by boat and nosotros were meters off of the nearest shores. I wish I could say I was brave and attacked the intruder. Instead, I lay there silently, blankets pulled over my face, hoping it would get out.
I woke upward and told my parents the next morning what I heard. My stepdad started laughing, "Yep, that's just the sea panthera leo that hangs around here sometimes. Don't worry about information technology."
Dodging Minefields, Literally
United states Navy, Indian Ocean in the tardily 80s. The USS Sammy Roberts had recently hit a mine there. Nosotros're cruising in (roughly) the same area, and all of a sudden, a lookout sees a mine. The ship shuts engines downwards. Now nosotros're drifting, and the ship is eerily repose without the noise of the engines (gas turbine found), and we know in that location are mines out there, and nosotros're Globe-trotting! The brass is trying to effigy out how to get us out of the minefield, and we're all sweating bullets waiting to see if we're going to accident upward. Anybody anywhere almost the hull around the waterline is rapidly getting the heck AWAY from the hull, which was hard for some of u.s.a. because we went to General Quarters, and our stations were right by the hull in some cases. (Mine existence one of them.)
I don't know how long nosotros drifted until they decided to try to back out, just it seemed hours until it was announced we were clear.
It was the about surreal experience of my life, waiting endless infinitesimal after endless minute to run across if the adjacent minute was going to blow the boat up.
A Foggy Idea Of What Was So Eerie
On deck in a container ship somewhere in betwixt Alaska and Russia, with fog surrounding the send and the water beingness creepily still.
It's a completely natural occurrence but freaky sitting on this massive ship in almost complete silence with only the low hum of the engine below deck and barely beingness able to run into a few anxiety in front of the ship. The h2o being still was freaky besides; it's just not something I see a lot in the open ocean.
It Would Have To Be An Extra Large Ping Pong Brawl
I was in a small boat off the coast of British Columbia —the h2o was perfectly flat, no sound, and eerie luminescent grey mist surrounded the gunkhole in all directions. My companion accurately described it every bit like existence inside a ping pong ball.
The Calorie-free Came Out Of The Bounding main
While standing a lookout scout at night on a patrol somewhere in the middle of the Bering Ocean, I saw a low-cal appear on the horizon. The light rose until I could tell through the binoculars that it was pretty clearly a circle of light—a glowing orb of some sort. It rose chop-chop and hung in the air for a brusque flow of time, but long enough for me to report the sighting and for folks on the bridge to puzzle over it. Then a few minutes later, it dropped apace and was gone for skillful.
So, two things we knew: one) It was over the water. The nearest land in that management was and then far that the thing would have had to have been the size of Connecticut if it had shot up from land. 2) The United states government didn't have a clue what information technology was (or had no interest in telling us).
It was weird. I do not believe it was extraterrestrial or the result of anything supernatural. But it was weird.
A Scene Straight Out Of The Shining
I was deployed on the Truman in 2013-xiv for 9 months, Persian Gulf. I saw a lot of what others have seen: the glowing algae, dolphins, oil rigs in the distance. Honestly though, being out there on the drinking glass-like water at night or during the solar day never bothered me. It was too cute.
I got creeped out INSIDE the send. I was walking alone at night, and all of the passageways were lit with red (they had doors that accessed the outside) and it was empty at the time and for a moment I merely thought to myself, "What the HECK am I doing here?!"
Newbie Sailors Virtually Killed Everybody
We got broadsided by 50-knot winds in the middle of the ocean and even with the chief reefed it cached the rail. I was barking orders to the new crew on trimming or letting out sails to lessen the bear upon of the air current gusts which were pushing 70 knots. Them beingness inexperienced pb to them occasionally doing the reverse of what I wanted.
This all came to a head when they tightened up on the sails that I ordered to exist allow out and we got hit by the hardest gust at that point. The wheel was literally ripped from my easily and the ship listed so far over I was certain that nosotros were capsizing. All gear on the port side of the ship shifted starboard and people vicious. The just matter that kept some on board was their harness. It was a terrifying and helpless feeling knowing that I was second in control, at the helm and responsible for the safety of the crew yet completely at the mercy of an unrelenting squall and a merciless ocean.
Thankfully, the ship righted itself and put its bow straight into the wind.
An All White Fish Can Symbolize So Many Things
I was working out at ocean and I saw this albino fish. It was amazing. I felt similar one of those old fishermen who say they've seen mermaids and stuff. I turned to my dominate and said, "Hey, look at that albino fish!" And he said, "That'southward not an albino fish, that's a ill fish. Information technology's swimming upside down. That's its white belly you lot can meet." …Dreams shattered instantly.
After The Autopilot And Before The Wedding
I was on cycle watch alone at effectually two a.thousand. when upward alee there was a course alter, about 45 degrees to my starboard. I started getting a really funny feeling about the course change and we had been having nav equipment issues the entire trip, so I woke upward the captain and told him well-nigh my feeling. He said, "Wake me dorsum up if things hit the fan." So about xv minutes later, I make my first course correction, about 5 degrees. The ship starts spinning and autopilot goes out. The radar cuts out. Both compasses are spinning in contrary direction, and I am heading toward a stone. I wake the captain upward and he rapidly gets things nether control, every bit I was still pretty new to the ship. We spent the residuum of the nighttime hand steering, using the stars, and novel tech equally our guide. No clue what could have caused all of that ruckus. Three years later, I marry a man from Alaska and we motility out to his state… on the same betoken where I spun out three years prior.
Safe From The Floating Skyscraper? If You Say So
I remember taking the ferry across the Mississippi in Lousiana during a crazy fog. This was besides at the aforementioned time a rather big ocean liner had somehow squeezed its way upriver.
It was a really eerie sight to see what was basically a water-borne skyscraper all of a sudden loom into view, towering over you around thirty or so yards away. I knew we were safe but it nevertheless felt like we were going to exist crushed at any second.
Perchance It Sang 'Baby Shark' One Too Many Times
I caught a ride on a fishing vessel from Greenland equally a teenager and traveled with them for nearly six weeks. We woke up 1 morning time to a shark impaled on the deck railing. No explanation of how it got there or why. Simply pushed information technology back overboard similar it hadn't attempted to ninja the ship during the dark while nosotros all slept in our beds. The railing wasn't even all that sharp.
But Was It Wearing A Sock?
Well, one really creepy thing that happened was we caught a human foot while dredging for scallops. It fifty-fifty came with the boot yet on.
Note To Self: Keep Doors Closed During Hurricanes
In the open up bounding main, I saw some strange fish and pods of dolphins hundreds large. I as well made the mistake of opening a atmospheric condition deck door during a storm in the Indian Ocean. I'yard lucky not to accept been washed away as the waves were crashing over us.
Peg Leg Alarm Clock
Dorsum in the mean solar day on a fishing gunkhole I worked on, the skipper used to wake me up by poking me with his dirty prosthetic leg.
When The Ocean's Dark, I Don't Meet Some Stuff On Purpose
Iii of us were sailing from San Francisco to San Diego on a 38′ ketch. LaVonne wakes me at midnight for my watch. We're sitting in the stern chatting for a scrap and I happen to wait straight downward the line of the bowsprit and… WTH? I think I might be seeing something expressionless ahead blacker than the already black dark sky. We're not in a aircraft lane, 25 miles from land, and it is blacker than black sky considering there are no stars in it. And whatsoever it is, it has correct angles to it! Somehow we're on standoff course with the one floating affair in all that open water!
I plough tiller slightly and we come across a 60-foot motel cruiser tossing from side to side in a slight sea 200 feet to starboard. Information technology's absolutely blacked out. No running lights (always on at sea), no interior lights, no sign of life.
My first thought is somebody might exist down, centre attack, any… but better wake the skipper and ask him. Woke him, he got up, looked at it for almost iii or four minutes. And I started getting the vibe. Something was wrong here.
He said, "No, let's go out of here," and went back to bed. Told me the next twenty-four hour period he made information technology for a possible illegal offloading.
You Can't Outswim Lightening
I went diving in the Keys 1 night and a lightning tempest struck up while I was under. It was cute, simply for obvious reasons nosotros had to become out of the h2o ASAP. I of my favorite memories though.
Unintentional House Gunkhole
In Port-au-Prince after the earthquake, I saw an unabridged firm float past the ship. Completely undamaged and intact. It was strange to know that a family unit could still be inside.
This Is Only A Drill, Right?
Currently in the Navy. I've been deployed about 12 months total in the past two years. Creepiest thing in terms of bodily fear was when nosotros were doing a practise General Quarters drill (battle stations) and a Russian Jet flew over united states of america most prompting an actual General Quarters.
The Ever-Enlarging Oil Rig
My first time going to an oil rig was crazy. Of course, information technology was at night during a storm but they obviously won't plow dorsum to shore and so it keeps going and the rig just keeps getting bigger and bigger. They expect exactly similar when you're heading into a small town from the peak of a mount overpass.
Acting The Fool In A Prowl Ship Emergency
I was on a cruise ship 7 years ago. It was an older ship (15 years sometime or so) and we went through a really crude tempest, people threw upwards everywhere, full general hysteria. Then the power went out, more than hysteria. Captain has a quick meeting with the senior officers and information technology'due south decided information technology'south best to accept everyone at muster stations till we go assist. We were basically adrift at this point. So he announces that it's not a drill and everyone should go their life jackets and assemble. We are supposed to assist anyone who needs medical attention beginning and suddenly there's this whole bunch of people faking medical emergencies. Fake fainting to simulated heart attacks. I am a very at-home person and even calmer in an emergency but we ran out of wheelchairs, heck we ran out of crew. I am paging for any medical professionals to assistance out, normal people are getting upset because at that place are not enough people to answer their questions, chaos bordering on pandemonium, and suddenly the power comes back on. Every idiot who had fainted or was having breast pains is suddenly fine and standing in line for the cafe. Nosotros just had one real medical emergency and about 30 fakers.
Goose egg Competes With Nature's Fireworks
Information technology was the quaternary of July, 1993 and nosotros were in transit from Hawaii to San Diego aboard the USS Greatcoat Cod (Advertizement-43), a repair tender. We were beingness immune outside the pare of the transport to sentry our destroyer escort shoot off some rounds and flares for our very own fireworks display. Subsequently the show, many of us remained outside just because nosotros could and the (mostly) total moon came out from behind some clouds and lit up the sky in a gorgeous pastel rainbow.
I'1000 not a religious person, but I've never felt closer to believing in something greater than myself… It was that beautiful, and monumental.
Bedazzled By A British Ship
I was a junior officer on lath the Saratoga, and nosotros were doing joint exercises with a British send, the HMS Newcastle. I was selected to berth onboard the Newcastle for a few days every bit a kind of cultural exchange. I had a wonderful time! British ships immune booze in the wardroom while underway. British officers were immune to article of clothing shorts. That ship had a few oriental civilians onboard, working as tailors, shoemakers, etc., similar to what you would see in The Sand Pebbles. And standing deck spotter on a destroyer in the Indian Ocean is definitely more pleasant than standing deck watch on an aircraft carrier. On the flying span you lot're just a few dozen feet higher up the water… the air is thick with flight fish whirring effectually you, the ship's turbine engine allows you to cut and maneuver through the waves like you're riding a cycle, and at night the sky in a higher place is adorned with strange (to me, a northern hemisphere boy) southern stars.
The Mystery Of The Man Overboard
So my dad was a sailor in the early on 1970s. He said he was on a send where an banana engineer went overboard and lost his life. Now, there was some suggestion that the engineer might have jumped himself as a way of taking his own life—he was known to exist going through a bad divorce at the fourth dimension and had seemed depressed… but at that place are ii little details that kind of seemed out of place:
Beginning, when they found him, his body was floating, which it shouldn't have been if he had drowned. Second, the seaman who'd heard the engineer get overboard had besides heard the engineer scream earlier he heard the splash.
And so was it him taking his own life? Or was the engineer pushed or attacked somehow—so thrown in the water to go far look like an accident?
He Still Had Bad Breath, Too
I defenseless a human afterwards he'd drank all of our listerine once, on a lay barge (a pipe laying barge) in the Gulf of Mexico.
Lay barges are where you'll meet the everyman of the depression.
What'south Weird Is You Stop Noticing What's Weird
I spent 2 years living aboard angling vessels in the Bering Sea, sometimes spending 3 months without touching port and just offloading to other larger boats. If there was something peculiar or paranormal, nobody would have known it happened. Everything is constantly swaying and rumbling, and everyone on board is too busy working 16-60 minutes shifts to notice.
Way Too Close For Comfort
Accept you always been out to sea nether sail? It's a surreal experience. A lot of times the ship barely makes whatsoever noise moving through the water.
I had merely gotten off of watch and it was well-nigh 0400. I'd been out to sea for a few months and was feeling down. I had been fighting with my wife, and my daughter barely knew who I was. I was sitting on the deck enjoying the environment, and I had that telephone call of the void experience.
I could just leap over the side right now. No one would see me, no one would hear me, simply a quiet lonely finish at sea. My wife wouldn't have to worry about money anymore, my life insurance is quite adept. My daughter wouldn't be wondering when her dad would and wouldn't be home. It would just be so much simpler.
Don't become me wrong, I'm not commonly this morbid person. I've struggled with low before, and will over again, but at that moment in time, the draw to surrender myself to the silent depths was eminently powerful.
I felt fine 15 minutes later, and feel fine now, but I nevertheless shiver when I retrieve virtually that night, alone on a ship, moving silently through the Atlantic.
The Body of water Tin can Make The The Toughest Guys Sad
I'chiliad ex-Navy. I was cruising at night in the Indian Ocean in large-ish seas (stars were out but the water was rough because of a distant tempest) and no moon. I was on the stern having a cigarette (this was the 90s). A guy jumps the side by making a solid run to aft and jumping off the fantail into the dark. We called man overboard and I saw the guy's caput bobbing in the waves for a few minutes but we lost him in the nighttime during the turn. In his jump, he cleared the screws. We could've saved him if nosotros could see him. They deployed motor whaleboats and stayed in the area for a while looking for him.
One Deck, Two Types Of Weather
I got the rare opportunity to become to the Corking Barrier Reef in Australia one time. And on our fashion dorsum, the sea is just SO vast, I could see where it was raining beyond the horizon and where information technology wasn't. Scary and amazing all at once.
This Does Not Feel Similar A Life Raft
I was a Construction Mechanic for the Seabees in San Diego. Nosotros were working on a ship-to-shore materials transport do with the merchant marines and we'd synthetic a small raft out of four modular pontoon sections which we'd tied to the send. I was maintaining some floodlights on the raft ane night when a storm came up out of nowhere and started throwing the raft about. Eventually, as it got dark, we decided to cutting loose from the send earlier the storm punched our raft through the hull of the transport.
I was on that raft with about ten other people, and all nighttime long the seas tossed us around. Eventually, we drifted so far from the send we couldn't meet its lights anymore. We thought we were gonna capsize.
Nobody actually talked much, and I made information technology my job to stay focused on keeping the floodlight-plant running. I felt like if nosotros lose the lights nosotros'll be doomed, and it'south my duty to make certain we have calorie-free, even though the light didn't extend much further than the edges of the raft. Only a raft with a noisy light found, and blackness as far as the eyes can come across, and a lot of us getting tossed around and thrown overboard (two people got tossed overboard and scooped upwards correct away). That night was scary… Felt similar it would never finish. The adjacent morning they found us about five miles from the ship.
The Case Of The Disappearing Dhow
Ex-Navy, was on a CG. On deployment, we were driving around one nighttime and noticed a dhow (sailboat) off in the distance that nosotros wanted to investigate. Someone on the bridge has some fancy NVGs and is looking at the dhow… and information technology looks as if they are throwing stuff over the side with someone watching us back.
We got near 50 yards away when the dhow just vanished. So odd.
A Bet With Really Bad Odds
We had a guy in my division who jumped off the stern in broad daylight. They constitute him and recovered him. He told the MAAs that he did information technology on a $20 bet. They said to him something along the lines of, "If yous lost your life, how would you collect?" They put him on picket in the brig. He was somewhen processed out.
A Heck Of A Heckler
We found a dhow that was floating around, seemingly unmanned, not responding to attempts to communicate with them. Nosotros send the VBBS team over and there was only i guy on the dhow (normally they accept a few more than than that) and he is just inebriated out of his mind and annoyed that we woke him from his stupor. He spent the next two weeks post-obit us around and screaming at the states on bridge-to-bridge.
Too Vast For Search And Rescue
I remember standing on the deck of the ship I was working on at the fourth dimension and watching rescue helicopters buzzing around and dropping flares to try and find survivors of a helicopter crash. One of the nigh surreal evenings of my life. It really brought home to me how vast the sea is and how pocket-size people are past comparing.
The Barracuda Too Enjoyed Nighttime Pond
In Puerto Rico, we decided to become for a night swim just me and my brothers. Totally unarmed and I'1000 like xi and my older brothers are xviii and 19. We were just swimming and nosotros lost rail of how far out nosotros got. We realized we were near 80 anxiety away from shore. Nosotros went to turn around then out of nowhere nosotros saw some barracuda between united states of america and the shore. We had to tread h2o back then slowly to shore it was terrible. Never gone night swimming since.
If A Tree Falls In The Body of water . . .
We were on our trusty little mine-hunter out in the middle of the Arafura Ocean (on the top terminate of Australia). No ships every bit far equally the radar could meet.
I was below decks doing something dull. Suddenly the drone of the engine is punctuated by a big bump from nearly the bow, followed by more bumps traveling towards the stern. I told one of my mates, "I think we just hitting something." The answer was, "Don't exist silly." was the reply. Understandable actually, united states of america existence in the middle of frigging nowhere.
Turns out we hit a tree.
Let'south replay that, slowly: in the center of a really big body of water, with no contacts on the radar, nothing in visual range (we had just traveled two days totally alone) nosotros actually hit a bloody tree just floating there!
To brand matters more interesting: the thing managed to curve our prop shaft. With days out from whatsoever coastal facilities, our Chief Engineer had to effigy out how to straighten the bugger out again using simply onboard equipment while keeping the boat traveling. Which he did.
Silent But Likely Fierce
There'due south cipher more than unsettling than seeing something in the water next to you that's been silent and probably there for a while. Even if it's not dangerous it's still freaky as heck that you could have been next to it unknowingly for so long.
Dolphin Tag Involves Wild Special Effects
Ex-Navy. While I was on the USS Pyro AE-24 (let's just get that out of the mode), standing fantail picket late one night along the California coast, I was admiring the faint luminescent algae in our wake when I saw something glowing bright light-green moving direct toward me through the water VERY FAST! I actually reported it as a possible torpedo, all my brain could dredge upwards when a glowing bright green oblong shape came racing at my ship. Roving patrol got sent to see if I was inebriated equally the ship hadn't blown up and I was at present reporting two such glowing submerged bogies repeatedly launching themselves at the back of the ship. Roving patrol confirmed my sobriety and what I was seeing. Shortly every paw that was awake was on the fantail admiring the sight. Though nosotros never got proof, we were pretty sure it was two dolphins playing tag with the ship. Information technology really looked that they were swimming between the screws and the hull, which would explain their loftier speed of arroyo, which agitated the luminescent algae to a bright brilliant green around them.
Human Goes Overboard After His Lid
We were in port and this guy came back inebriated and lost his chapeau over the side. I guess this was unacceptable so he dove in after it. They fished him out and it was a mess for that idiot.
When Diving With Sharks, Schedule The Swim For Noon
Dark dives with lots of sharks are terrifying. We dive wrecks that during the solar day were covered with lazy sand tigers and shy bulls. Aforementioned guys are manner, way more active at night!
The Kind Of Sub That's Not A Sandwich
I was a Combat Systems Operator in the Majestic Australian Navy, and we were off the declension of Commonwealth of australia somewhere heading to practice exercises with the Americans. It was night, and I was having a cigarette on the quarter deck and looking out over the sea.
It was relatively calm—maybe Sea Land 2—and there was a one-half moon that was painting the ocean silver. No land within sight in whatever direction. Very peaceful.
Anyway, I'm only standing around and looking at the body of water when suddenly—and silently—a Collins Form submarine emerges from the depths just off the port side aft quarter from the same patch of bounding main that I had been staring at.
Source: https://www.smarter.com/lifestyle/weird-sea-world-people-who-have-lived-on-the-ocean-share-their-strangest-encounters?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740011%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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