Beautiful offshore moment

[smackdaddy]

Damn straight lad. I've got a scar I can show ya from when the USS Sheboigan went down in our lake....



Sorry Ocean. I'll leave now.

[JewelledJester]

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

[fullkeel7]

This thread reminds of a reoccurring dream similar to Oceangirl's description, only mine was a shark...looking down on me like some tasty soft morsel in a hard shell, the sharks smile always woke me up! Guess that doesn't count...

I've only had one 'true' offshore experience, a 1200 nm passage from the Bahamas to St. Thomas...seven hundred nm due east to pick up the trades, then into the islands. Two man crew, 4 on 4 off, so there was a couple clear nights with opportunities to watch the masts do their little dance with the Milky Way. A man could easily just lay back in awe and choke on his own spit at this awesome site. Don't ask how I know. Truely privileged viewing.

What was so unsettling for me, was just the opposite of the other's experience. For the entire passage, we never saw one bird, fish or turtle until nearing St. Thomas. Luck of the draw, I suppose. Anyway, we experienced some of the same conditions OG described and with my reoccurring dream in mind, I searched the waves above for my shark. Didn't happen...and I've never had that dream again.

[oceangirl]

You guys are a hoot.

Shark week on the discovery channel, sleep with a night light

[Omatako]

1) Green flash - I was always sceptical until we saw it about 900nm out from San Diego. Never saw it before or since - just the once.

2) A light show about 50m under water - about 2:00am - flashing lights of subtely different colours flashing quite brightly. It was so unusual I went and woke up the others on the boat and we watched it for about an hour. Sometimes the flashes were bright enough to reflect off the side of the boat! We only discovered some time later that the source was a shoal (?) of giant squid that use flashing light in their bodies apparently to disorientate their prey during attacks but we have also heard it said (National Geographic) that they use the flashes to communicate. I think if we had known that we would have been more circumspect about hanging over the side of the boat watching!! About 500nm east of the Kermadec Islands. See it here: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Large squid lights up for attack

[oceangirl]

I bet that was gorgeous! I love squid and octopuses but would never want to be in the water with the big guys!

In the gulf of mexico I saw some unusual glowing objects and still don't know what it was. It was a moonless night and the phosphorescence were so active it seemed like you could see the breaking waves from horizon to horizon. The first URGO ( Unidentified Round Glowing Object for you civilians out there) was about 15-20 ft diameter. We passed so close to it that I thought to myself “wow! glad I didn’t hit that sleeping whale” but it was too round for a whale. In fact, it was almost perfectly round and the surface had imperfections like freckles (some area dimmer than others), it was defiantly solid not just a glob of phosphorescence. It was stationary in the water, very near the surface say five feet. We sailed on and I spotted another one but it was smaller and deeper maybe 20 feet down and only about 10 feet in diameter. I’ve racked my brain trying to imagine what it was, Submarine? Submerged oil platform? It seemed organic Giant Squid? Giant jellyfish?

[bloodhunter]

It was warm with a steady breeze that cloudless evening in mid-June. We'd just crossed the stream on our way to Bermuda. The sun was near the horizon and the evening star was bright in the sky. I'd just come up to take an evening sight. As I sat on the cabin top, I could hear the rush of the water and the wind in the rigging; I could smell dinner cooking in the galley.
Then Joey, in the cockpit began to play Shenandoah on his harmonica.
I just sat there, lost in the moment.
It was almost as if the powers that be had scripted the perfect sailing moment and presented it to us as a gift.
There have been many other moments of joy and terror, but nothing to quite equal the perfection of that June evening.