New4cruise Posted May 9, 2019 #1 Share Posted May 9, 2019 Has anyone ever experienced seeing glowing, sparkly, glittering,white balls of light swooping over the water right off the ship's balcony in the middle of the night? I HAVE! I searched the internet about this topic as soon as I got home. There was a post in January, 2013 about this by "lightbender". His wife woke him up around 2:00 am and they both saw the same phenomenon of lights. Unfortunately, "lightbender" is no longer an active CruiseCritic poster. I regret not taking a picture or video of it. I joined CruiseCritic specifically to search this topic. I just returned from a pleasant cruise on The Norwegian Sky to Cuba and the Bahamas. Has anyone ever experienced this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Langoustine Posted May 9, 2019 #2 Share Posted May 9, 2019 (edited) Sounds like St. Elmo's Fire. Very common at sea. Edited May 9, 2019 by Langoustine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho_proudfoot Posted May 9, 2019 #3 Share Posted May 9, 2019 The OP also asked this on the "ask a question" forum. I answered it there before l saw this here. I also suggested St Elmo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogs4fun Posted May 9, 2019 #4 Share Posted May 9, 2019 My guess would also be St. Elmo's fire. You can read a brief summary from the links below and see if it describes what you witnessed (it often appears on the masts of ships & wings of planes); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo's_fire https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/st-elmo-fire.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggtjr Posted June 3, 2019 #5 Share Posted June 3, 2019 Aliens? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
navybankerteacher Posted June 4, 2019 #6 Share Posted June 4, 2019 On 5/9/2019 at 10:36 AM, Langoustine said: Sounds like St. Elmo's Fire. Very common at sea. Sounds more like ball lightning —— St. Elmo’s fire most frequently occurs around a particular object - a ship’s mast or spar, perhaps an antenna. That “ball of light” does not fit . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg4502 Posted June 4, 2019 #7 Share Posted June 4, 2019 Flying fish, reflecting the ships light, as they fly across the water, before diving back into the water, to get out of the way of the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquahound Posted June 4, 2019 #8 Share Posted June 4, 2019 St. Elmos Fire isn't in the water. My guess is it's bioluminescent plankton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare sparks1093 Posted June 4, 2019 #9 Share Posted June 4, 2019 I believe ball lightning was suggested in a duplicate post in another forum and the OP confirmed that is what she saw after following the provided link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Langoustine Posted June 6, 2019 #10 Share Posted June 6, 2019 Ball lightning or plankton sounds good, and better than my original suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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