During the summer of 1962, my friend and I were at the beach fishing for striped bass.We had decided to make it an all night fishing trip.
It was a warm summer night and to the best of my knowledge no one else was on the beach.
I was sitting on a beach chair when my friend saw something and yelled, what's that?
I looked up and saw a round rather dull orange light approaching us directly off the ocean.
My initial thought was a lost fishing boat using a rather large spotlight to find its way.
It was an odd sight, but at the time seemed to be a plausible explanation.
There was a river inlet close by which fishing boats used regularly and I was used to seeing boats in the general location, although not that close to shore.
I would say the light was 150' off shore and maybe 15' above the water.
The width was about the same as a large floodlight, the kind you see at movie premiers, maybe a little smaller.
The light was slowly approaching directly at us and I started to become nervous.
As it appeared the fishing boat was going to run ashore right at our feet.
When the light reached about 100' to our front it commenced to rapidly accelerate.
It was still heading directly at us and I jumped from my chair, ran back a few feet, and turned back around.
I expected to see a fishing boat run up over our position and ground itself.
To my surprise the light was gone but now there was a large circular object to our front at an altitude of maybe 150'.
The object was lit but I don't remember any details or the exact size.
It departed to the northwest at a steady slow rate of speed.
At the time it seemed to be an exciting adventure, I was 17 years old and my friend 16 and wow we say something spectacular.
As I think back there is something very disturbing about the event.
What happened to the rapidly approaching orange light?
Why didn't we see the large circular object until after the orange light disappeared?