25 Unsettling Things Spotted Out On The Open Waters

We know that at least 71% of the Earth is covered in water. So it stands to reason that there are quite a few mysteries out in the vast oceans of water that may baffle us on closer inspection. One Redditor got curious about the weirdest things that may be out there in the big blue seas and inquired from people online what was the oddest thing they had spotted in the water. Folks did not disappoint in their answers and revealed everything from the creepiest to the most bizarre things they have witnessed amidst the waves.

#1 Not working, but fishing in the Chesapeake Bay years ago out of sight of any land, suitcases started floating by. My old boss was convinced there could be valuable things in them, so he pulled up to pick one up.

Image source: ThisCarSmellsFunny, freepik

It was a small suitcase, and he said it was way heavier than it should be, and he couldn’t quite get it out without risking falling in, so he gave up. The next day there was a news report on suitcases washing up, being found by boaters, etc. it was body parts. Some woman had k*lled and dismembered her husband, stuck him into suitcases, and dumped them in the bay. Thank god my boss wasn’t able to get it onboard to open it.

#2 Not so much creepy as it was astounding. I’ve lost years of my life to the Bearing Sea. However it’s given back so much to me. My one true life changing experience was being just north of the Diomedes and the sea turning flat.

Image source: Delfondo_82, eestellez / freepik

Cloud cover cleared and the Cosmos was in full view. Laying on the deck and looking at the universe was beyond comprehension. It was as if I was close enough to taste how smells. Being so far from humanity and at such a latitude made a huge impact on me. I could have easily slipped into the sea never again knowing the atrocities of the world.

#3 I’ve been nudged in the ribs by a 7 ft plus sturgeon in the Russian River while drunk. Watching the body swim past me terrified me more than the hammerheads swimming under me while snorkeling in Hawaii.

Image source: SaltyShawarma, KoiQuestion / flickr

#4 Not seen but heard. Being under the ice pack the sounds of the ice shifting sounded like a witches scream. Knew what it was, but still sent chills.

Image source: Devilfish664, vladimirpolikarpov / freepik

#5 We were swimming off a friends sail boat, and there were reports of a great white in the area. That didn’t stop us 20-something’s from swimming though.

Image source: ReasonableLoss6814, Glenda / freepik

Anyway, I had just dived in to come up with this giant grey thing, a shark?, right in front of me. I freaked out and started moving towards the swim ladder as fast as possible while the giant grey fin thing came in my direction as well. All my friends were going ohhh and ahh like the giant grey thing wasn’t about to eat me.

After I got out, I turned to see what it was. It was a manatee, just coming to say hello.

#6 Nothing. It’s just weird when you look out over the ocean and there’s just nothing but water in any direction. Then it starts getting dark and all you see is black water below and the brightest stars above you’ve ever seen.

Image source: Luke_Flyswatter, jannoon028 / freepik

#7 A little story from when I was a 3rd Engineer onboard a Reefer vessel sailing southbound in the Atlantic by the West African coast (think we were sailing past Senegal).

Image source: YESIAMSUPERGAYMAN, EyeEm / freepik

For reference the work watches of a 3rd is 0800-1200 and 2000-0000.

At around 3am we had a failure in the main propulsion and all engineers were called to assist with bringing it back online. We managed to bring it back 3 hours later… already sleep deprived and exhausted from being in a 50degreesC engine room I went up to the stern to have a cigarette… casually leaning on the railings staring into the abyss I heard a voice say “Jump in, the waters cool” I was instantly taken back and looked around only to find just myself on the stern at the time no one else in the vicinity. I basically noped tf out and went to eat breakfast and get 1 hour sleep so I was ready for my watch.

On the plus side I did see whales breaching the water on the northbound sail back to Europe.

#8 All manner of trash out at sea. We were sailing off west Africa in the Atlantic
and saw something white bobbing on the horizon and had to investigate to make sure it wasn’t someone in distress. Turns out it was a full size refrigerator just floating in the ocean.

Image source: Top_Chef, rorozoa / freepik

Also the amount of fine sand and dust blowing off the Sahara is wild. The sky turns a shade of orange and the dust gets everywhere.

#9 Having left the port city of Cobh, Ireland, well after midnight saw an Orca just under the surface of the very dark sea, sideways, looking up at me as it followed the ship. This was on the aft-end (fantail) of a guided missile cruiser

Image source: SteelhandedStingray, Zdeněk Macháček / unsplash

#10 In the Strait of Hormuz, an absolute writhing mass of sea snakes hundreds of yards across. Also, in the same area, hundreds of dead bloated sheep, blown up like giant fuzzy beach balls.

Image source: IceTech59, Joi Ito / flickr

#11 I sailed across the Atlantic a few times and the creepiest thing is realizing how small and insignificant we really are. It’s very humbling.

Image source: DriedUpSquid

#12 Don’t work at sea, but was fishing. We hooked a fairly large shark in clear shallow water (15 m) and it just chilled next to the boat. Boat was maybe 8m?

Image source: RareWolf34, awaiskhan7174 / freepik

Anyway before we cut the line a HUGE dark shape loomed up and swam next to the shark we hooked and it was even f*****g bigger, maybe an extra meter and a bit but that’s an extra meter of f*****g body. I felt a visceral primal fear, like I was a monkey as I clung to the boat and seen this giant shark checking out its buddy and us. We cut the line and watched them both swim away side by side, I never went back out to sea. F**k that.

#13 It was like a giant squid but way bigger, makes you think about what could people from long time ago could’ve seen

Image source: anon, NOAA Ocean Exploration / flickr

#14 Currently at sea as I type this, while not necessarily IN the water…but we went through a huge patch of fog, last week for about 2-3 days…standing on the bow,..could only see about 150 yards out…I was expecting Pyramid head to row up in his Pyramid boat at any moment. It’s just super creepy knowing beyond that fog is just an endless ocean, all around.

Image source: Br0biwanken0bi, EyeEm / freepik

#15 Sea spouts or marine tornadoes.

Image source: trailsendAT, Dr. Joseph Golden, NOAA / Wikipedia

I didn’t think much of them other than they were kinda interesting. You’d see them from after touching down and moving around and then dispersing.

Then one night at like around 2 AM we got broadsided by one in pretty severe weather.

This was while our largish vessel was attached to the sea floor. We got pushed off station several hundred meters.

We came a lot closer than I’d like to think about to sinking that night, with close to 300 people on board, most of whom were sleeping at the time.

Then I definitely found them less interesting and way more creepy.

#16 We found an abandoned yacht in the Mediterranean, it was just bobbing there. Sent the RIB to investigate. Reported back completely deserted, just half-eaten meals and suitcases. No signs of life.

Image source: Space_Eaglez

#17 At night, nothing. Just the vast, inky blackness stretching in every direction. The only thing breaking the endless void are the off white caps of the waves. It’s the kind of emptiness that makes you feel small and insignificant and hyper aware that you’d be doomed if you fell in unnoticed.

Image source: PM-ME-UR-BMW, v.ivash / freepik

#18 It would have to be me in a speedo thong.

Image source: AdorableStrawberry93

#19 Sea Snakes in the Persian Gulf. Bright neon pink, pretty easy to spot ( we stationed a Sea Snake Watch) so we could enjoy a little swim call while we were hanging out right after Desert Storm.

Image source: Any-Split3724, Schmidt Ocean Institute

#20 2 dead bodies and a severed arm. We were anchored off Shri Lanka

Image source: Gelatotim, topntp26 / freepik

#21 Well this isn’t creepy, but it is funny when bioluminescent plankton gets sucked up into the marine heads and you get to pee on glowy water.

Image source: local_fartist, Ann-Sophie Qvarnström / flickr

I spent 4 years sailing full time after college and I can’t think of anything *creepy* exactly. I have some very vivid memories of strange/striking moments.

* Captain smoking a cigarette in 30 knot winds so the ash was spraying behind him like sparks
* Being sea sick in the Gulf Stream in like 15 foot waves at night and falling asleep standing up draped on the rigging (clipped in)
* sailing around Bermuda with a bunch of traditionally rigged sailboats in a fog (looked like a movie, except all the boats were from different eras)
* Getting the p**s scared out of me while someone told me alien abduction stories in the middle of the night sailing in the Caribbean ?
* looking down from the bow and seeing a shark rising the bow wake like a dolphin

The creepiest thing I encountered was drunk sailors in port tbh.

edit: I have also seen some crazy weather. I remember in the atlantic being surrounded by squalls at night to the extent that the lightning flashes felt like strobe lights. My shipmate and I turned to each other and were like “we need Daft Punk.”

Some of the scariest weather I’ve seen was actually on the Great Lakes, and the conditions can be just as sketchy as the ocean. Plus the waves are closer together so they are more uncomfortable.

Re: drunk sailors. Use your imagination.

 

#22 I don’t work at sea, but I saw something eerie one time while I was on a cruise on a small boat.

Image source: biCamelKase, Kedar Gadge / unsplash

One night while we were on deck, we saw a bioluminescent shark on one side of the boat, and a sea otter on the other. Suddenly there was a lot of commotion and splashing from the sea otter, and then we heard it swimming away at high speed, coming up for a breath every few seconds. The breath sounds gradually got softer and softer as it got farther and farther away.

This happened more than ten years ago. I sometimes wonder if that little guy made it to safety or not…

#23 A half sunk yacht, full of sharks

Image source: deJuice_sc, Getty Images / freepik

#24 Three floating deer carcasses tied to a safety buoy.  Our theory was someone must have brought frozen deer in their vessel and threw them overboard at some point.  Absolutely no idea why, weird as hell.

Image source: theapronbiz, vladimircech / freepik

#25 My friend and I decided to kayak to a small island off the coast of Kino Bay, Mexico in the sea of Cortez. We ended up getting pulled out by the riptide pretty quickly and had to paddle our a*ses off to get to the island and avoid being taken out to sea.

Image source: PowderHound40, Rachel Claire / pexels

After paddling for over an hour we started getting closer to the north side of the island. We could see seals exiting the water and getting up onto the rocks. The closer we got to the island the more visibility we had to the sea floor. Constant large dark shadows kept passing rapidly below the kayak. Probably just seals, but who knows. The hair in the back of my neck was sticking up the entire time. The local fisherman we spoke to couldn’t believe we kayaked to the island. A year or so later they landed the one of the largest White shark ever caught just a few miles south of there.