A post by Mark
The other day – I witnessed a relatively rare astronomical event (I think).
It was the end of our 3 1/2 day passage – around an hour or two after sunset. We were about 2 or 3 hours from the marina in Clearwater Beach – the end was finally in sight. I’m at the helm – cruising on auto pilot and just scanning the water for stuff – mainly, other boats – as there were no other obstructions in our path. I take a quick look at the instruments, look up – and out of the corner of my eye, I see a bright green flare landing in the water. Quickly, I scan the horizon to see where it came from. I’m about to turn the boat towards it – thinking I’m going to assist in some sort of rescue. I can’t find anything, so I call down to Julie to come up and to help me scan the water as well. I was shocked to see the flare – as I hadn’t seen anything in the water anywhere near where it landed. After 10 minutes searching with our spotlight, we see nothing and conclude I must have just been seeing things – especially since all marine flares are either red or orange. I guess the lack of sleep was getting to me.
After another 10 minutes or so, I finally convince myself that I was seeing things. Just then, the Coast Guard transmits the following over the radio:
‘This is Coast Guard station St. Petersburg – Notice to all mariners along the Florida coast from Key West to Pensacola. Please be advised that there is meteorite activity in the area, and all mariners are advised to use caution.’
Holy cow – I think I just saw a meteorite hit the Gulf – and not too far from us. Pretty cool. Ranks pretty high on the list of things I didn’t expect to on this trip.
As a side note – we had a pretty good chuckle about the Coast Guard advisory… Exactly how does one use caution to avoid a meteorite? Do we just duck? Wear helmets? What exactly are we supposed to do? Plus – they were about 20 minutes too late. Chances are we won’t have to worry about this again.
Until next time…
You need the chicken wing hat!
Incredible!!