Witness Remark: Thought it Was A Cruise Ship Not Moving

Object As Seen at 5:30 AM	Object As Seen at 5:45 AM
Object As Seen at 6:00 AM	Object As Seen at 6:30 AM

Map Showing Location of Sighting.
(Ship Was on Journey From San Juan, PR to St. Thomas, VI)
Ship Was Close to St. Thomas When Sighting Occurred.

Date of Sighting: December 18, 2007
Time of Sighting: Began at 5:30 AM AST
Date Sighting Reported: February 5, 2008
Duration of Sighting: One Hour
Location of Sighting: Near St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (Exact Location Unknown)
Latitude: 18.35 North Degrees North (Estimated)
Longitude: 65.07 Degrees West (Estimated)
Number of Witnesses: One
Weather: Clear Skies. Good Visibility. Calm Winds. (Per Witness Observation.)
Astronomical: Sunrise Was at 6:43 AM AST. Civil Twilight Was at 6:19 AST.

Description: On December 18th I was aboard a ship (the FORTUNA ON Costa Lines) off of the coast of St. Thomas V.I. I awakened at 5:30 a.m. and decided to take my binoculars and look at the stars as it was still extremely dark out and we had a large window in our room. In the distance I saw a very strange sight that I thought was another ship in distress. It was the shape of a ship. The lights on the ship were a weird color (one row was an orange- yellow and the row below was a neon blue green). Suddenly all the lights went off then on, then off. I thought how peculiar that all the lights on a ship would go off at the same time! The ship was not moving, but we were. As we got closer the strangest thing happened. I couldn't believe my eyes and I kept yelling at my husband to get up to see what I was seeing. The ship suddenly started to change shape and color. It became a round object and began to lift off the water. The color was a peachy gold metallic and rose about 100 feet off the water. Then suddenly I could only see a huge amount of smoke where the round object was. Then 6 round balloon shaped objects emerged from the smoke and started to lift skyward. They were the same peachy gold metallic color of the previous object. At this point our ship had moved so far past these objects that I strained to look out the window, but could no longer see anything. I have hesitated to share this experience with anyone as I feared they would think I was either dreaming or hallucinating. This was real. I assure you I was awake and am totally sane. I have a PH.D and am a respected person in my community. I grabbed a piece of paper ( a diagram of the ship I was on) and sketched what I saw so I would not forget what I saw and will send it to you.

Comments: I spoke at length with the witness. The witness has a PhD in gerontology. I found her to be sincere. She was very explicit in her description of what occurred. The sighting occurred through a window inside the cabin. The witness would have been looking south at the time of sighting. She stated that she could only see water and no land. It was dark at the beginning time of the sighting, but was becoming daylight towards the end of the sighting. The source of this sighting is unknown. I don't believe that the lights observed were a reflection off of the cabin window because the witness stated that the inside lights were not on. A slight possibility exists that the witness could have observed something on the British Islands to the south (see map), but this is unlikely because the distance is close to 100 miles and also she lost sight of the object to the right as the ship moved. (If the object was on the land mass, the object wouldn't have moved out of view.)

February 11, 2008 Update: The witness submitted drawings in sequence showing that the object changed shapes throughout the one hour observation time. (See above.) The drawings also illustrate that the object rose from the ocean and emitted other objects.