Spectacular Sighting and “Missing Time” in South Florida
©Kathleen Marden
Friday, December 3, 2021, was an ordinary morning for the South Florida witness, whose identity must remain confidential. He was looking forward to a routine day of fishing off Florida’s southeast coast. That morning, as was his custom, he loaded his boat up, drove to the marina, and headed out the inlet to the intercoastal waterway. He headed southeast planning to maneuver five or six miles out into the Atlantic where the ocean water is about 500 feet deep. The fishing was good in this location.
As he proceeded to his fishing spot, he had left the inlet and passed over a shallow reef, maybe 70-foot below the water’s surface. He had gone a bit further when he noticed what looked like a rectangle, below the clouds, in the sky southeast of him. It had a strange appearance like something he had never observed before. He focused on it to assess whatever it was he was observing and realized that it had the appearance of a portal.
In the past he had seen several aerial objects that he could not identify, but his typical response was to acknowledge their presence and move on. This things appearance grabbed his attention. It was different than anything he had seen before. He had never put faith in the presence of portals because to him it seemed like a stretch of his imagination. The thought was simply too uncanny for his mind to accept. But this was a portal, and it captured his attention.
He continued to head south-southeast, toward his destination, until he was in about 200 feet of water. He estimates that he moved about two miles over a five-minute period. The aerial object was still there, only now it had long lines extending from the corners of the rectangle, at a right angle to the ocean. He saw short horizontal lines at the top and bottom of this perplexing rectangle. It was clearly defined and not at all fuzzy. The shiny, grayish color reminded him of mica or liquid mercury. It seemed to have a little bit of a ridged texture and was positioned with the longer edges vertical to the water and the shorter edges horizontal to the water.
As he watched, something that looked like a cloud started to ooze out and down from the lower corners. They made a teardrop or comma type shape with the tails facing the middle or center underneath the rectangle. The thicker end of the comma was located at the bottom indicating that it expanded out from the object. They were identical and emerald green with yellowish tinges. The witness said they remained like this for a while, but he was uncertain of the precise length of time.
Illustrations by Kathleen Marden are based on the witness's descriptions in the first interview and may not be precisely what he saw.
Illustration by Kathleen Marden
He continued to maneuver his boat through the water when suddenly what looked like a waterspout shot up from the center of the upper end of the rectangle. The witness stated that he had seen many waterspouts out there but not one had looked like this. A normal waterspout drops down from the clouds and extends toward the water. This is not what he was observing.
The following computer generated illustrations are facsimiles to what the witness described. ©Kathleen Marden
He took his eyes of the mysterious object for a moment and continued to head toward his destination as he looked for birds and other boats. When he looked again, he saw a star-like bright light at the top of the vortex or waterspout. He could not identify precisely what this amazing, morphing phenomenon was.
It was about 7:00 AM and the sun was fully visible at 7:05. He decided to stop his boat and to sit on the water watching this object that had captured his attention. He estimated that it was about two miles off to his right which was in the direction of the shore but almost even with his boat.
Suddenly, clouds started to pour out of the middle center of the rectangle. It reminded him of a rocket taking off. It had an explosive appearance like you might see during a Kennedy Space Center launch. Then the clouds poured out of from every inch of the rectangle. It was not like a few clouds came rushing out. The entire face was filled with rushing clouds. Searching for a prosaic explanation, he began to suspect that it might be a meteor that would soon strike the earth. He suspected that his life would soon come to an end because of a meteor impact, so he decided to sit in his boat and simply observe. He estimated that at this point he had been observing the craft or whatever it was for only a few minutes.
He searched his mind for another prosaic explanation and wondered if a submarine had launched a missile. He was looking for a sign to indicate that it was in fact a common missile but there was no indication that anything had ascended into the air. All activity emanated from the face of what he now began to believe was a portal of some kind. He is not 100% sure but he is “pretty sure” that the vortex was spinning in a clockwise rotation.
Illustrations by Kathleen Marden are based on the witness's descriptions in the first interview and may not be precisely what he saw.
Illustration by Kathleen Marden
Suddenly, he noticed that whatever was descending from the sky had slowed down. The clouds were still being emitted from the center of the rectangle but not with the previous explosive force. Then the portal, or whatever it was, shot up approximately 200 feet. It grew wider and there was some kind of commotion around the rectangle. It seemed like the green teardrop clouds were feeding into the vortex. Soon, the vortex overtook the entire area where the rectangle had been. The witness said it resembled swirling winds seen through a sheer curtain where you could see motion, but you were not entirely sure what it was. The vortex had been about 1/10 as wide as the rectangle but now it grew as wide as the rectangle. Something was shooting out from it and there was a vapor trail at the top where the vortex ended. It started to curve up toward the north.
He realized that he had not photographed it, so he grabbed his camera and took a couple of photographs. However, they were not even close to what he had been observing, so he put the camera away. There was a time differential that he could not explain. Although he thought it was after 7:00 AM, his camera registered a few minutes earlier at 6:53 AM. He was certain that he had checked the time and it was later when he took the photographs.
His words best describe what he saw:
"When this event took place, the portal was much closer to the beach and nowhere near the rising sun. That morning the rising sun was east of the Boynton Inlet, and maybe a little north of the inlet. When I went out of the inlet I went east, southeast, and then more southeast. I was about two miles south of the inlet. Whenever I go fishing off the southeast coast. I start the day by going south. This is because of the Gulf Stream, which can at times pull a boat north by as much as four miles per hour. If you don’t head south to start you can end up off Jupiter by the end of the day. It is a long boat ride home if you end up thirty miles from where you started. That is why I am so sure of my location when this event occurred. Also, I recall the sun was almost over my left shoulder while I watched this event unfold. Never was the bright sun a problem for me, and the way the pictures look now I would have been looking into the sun the entire event."
The witness states that we should not focus much attention on the following photos. He took them on the morning of the event but they do not show the portal or craft. Also, they are not in the location where the event occurred.
Photo #1: (6:53 AM) The rising sun with a trail above it
Photo 2: (6:57 AM) A closer view of the vapor trail
He was standing on the port (east) side of the boat watching this thing when, all of a sudden, he blanked out. His next memory was of finding himself in a new location without knowing how he arrived there. Now he was at the back of the boat and the craft was only 600 feet away hovering in the sky. Although he had not consciously taken his eyes off it, he had no memory of its approach.
He could clearly see its cone-shaped nose and a cylinder extending down from it. He described it as follows:
"The nose of the craft had a triangular shape. Almost like an arrowhead, at first. The 'wings’ extended out just behind the nose of the craft. The 'wingtips' seemed to curl upward and inward at the outer edges of the wingtips. The 'wings' only came back for the first fifty feet or so. The rest of what I could see was cylinder shaped. If you put the shape of the space shuttle on the nose of this cylinder that is what the first fifty feet resembled. The craft changed as I was trying to see how long it was-the tail end of the craft was obscured by vapors. As I was trying to judge the size, I noticed the nose of the craft changing. It was not mechanical. No areas opened to allow the wings to fold inward. It just seemed as if the wings changed and became part of the cylinder shape. I saw no portholes or windows. It is almost as if the craft is pliable in some way. The front of the craft simply became the same as the rest. The entire craft was charcoal grey.
The portal “face” (the rectangle shape) was overwhelmed by the exploding clouds. As these slowed and stopped coming out of the face of the portal, the vortex began swirling inside the area that had been the face of the portal. This was like watching something behind a sheer curtain. As this happened the vortex on top of the rectangle, which had not changed yet, was overwhelmed by this wider vortex, and now shot up. Following the path of the original, smaller waterspout type cloud. It climbed quickly, now the width of the portal. Shooting up several hundred feet above the original, smaller vortex. For a short while this spinning cloud filled the area where the portal had been (the silvery, grey face had now disappeared).The vapor cloud that followed the craft, and the two teardrop shaped clouds (now much smaller) were what was left. I am not sure when the vortex ended exactly, but once the craft had exited the portal it stopped spinning at some point.
Illustration of the vapor cloud by Kathleen Marden
This is where I was watching the craft as it leveled out its altitude and headed north. I was watching the vapor trail head north. Then the next thing I remember is that the craft was low, behind the boat. It was going very slow and was very low. I watched as it gained speed and altitude and headed west, southwest."
While the witness was attempting to determine its length, it suddenly morphed, and the cone-shaped nose turned into a cylinder. The silent aerial vehicle had come to a complete stop and was the diameter of a Boeing 747 jetliner and about 3/4 as long. A Boeing 747 jet varies in length from 184 feet 9 inches – 250 feet 2 inches (56.30 – 76.25 meters). The approximate height of a Boeing 747 is about 63 feet.
The craft started to move, picking up speed and heading toward the west-southwest. He watched as the charcoal gray craft headed down the coast emitting a lighter gray vapor trail. He believes that it was generating heat at this time as if the craft had gone through a heating process and was cooling. He could see greenish clouds where the portal had been, but they were much smaller. There was no sound. As far as he knows, the motor on his boat was idling and never stopped running.
Sudden Mood Change:
Feeling disoriented, he sat down at the front of the boat, for a few minutes, to gather his thoughts. He was suddenly experiencing the most overwhelming feeling of peace and calmness that he had ever felt. Nothing in his past compared to this sense of tranquility. He simply stated that he “felt So good.” He checked the time on his depth meter and noticed that nearly two hours had passed from when he first noticed the structure in the sky. It was now 9:00 AM. It seemed that only moments had passed, but he could not account for two hours!”
Suddenly, feeling fired up, he headed for his fishing spot for a day on the water. Later, when he arrived at the dock, he told the man who worked there about his sighting and this man advised him to keep his mouth shut, not to talk about it. A couple of days later, he was back at the dock and this man told him that another person had reported observing something weird and unknown-something of the same description. The dock worker commented on how something strange appeared to be going on out there.
The witness added the following thoughts:
"As to my experience I am unsure of what happened during those missing two hours. As I believe I mentioned before, there were definitely some time/space issues during the event I witnessed. Once I really began observing the event, I could feel some strange energy at play. I even remember wondering if I was being exposed to some force that could affect my health. I could definitely feel something going on, but I decided to simply concentrate on the event. The only physical effect later was the fact that hot (not spicy) food was almost impossible for me to eat for almost a week. My teeth were extremely sensitive to even warm food. I had never experienced such a sensation before.
Also, after the spaceship had headed off to the south/southwest I had that short euphoric feeling that I believe lasted for five or ten minutes. I have never been so at peace or had such a feeling of calm. As I sat in the front of the boat and considered what I had just witnessed I felt what can only be described as nirvana. I guess Christians would call it being filled with the Holy Spirit. Whatever it was, and whatever you call it, it was a total feeling of peace and joy.
As to my energy level after I witnessed this event, I would have to say it was very high. You mentioned in your email that it is common for folks to experience tiredness or fatigue after an encounter. I was anything but that. I will admit that while fishing that day I was concentrating on the event I had seen, and not catching fish. However, I did have my baits in the water, at least. It actually gave me time to process all that I had seen."
The Aftermath:
After this close encounter with an unexplained object and its related phenomena, for at least eight months, on almost a nightly basis, the witness sat outside looking into the sky for a sign of something unusual. He focused on two unlighted dark areas where neighborhood lights would not drown out the sky. Usually, he saw distant lights in the sky. Rarely did a night pass where he did not see something that he could not identify. One night he observed two lights that were brighter and a little whiter than Venus. He did not take his eyes off them but had only focused on them for 30 to 40 seconds when they simply disappeared. As an investigator I know that this is a common occurrence and might have a simple explanation.
One night he was looking up at a cloud that diminished in size and disappeared. However, when he looked up again there was a second cloud with something that seemed to be between where the two clouds would have been. As he watched, he saw something that appeared to be sucking in the cloud until it disappeared. He suspects that it was “them” keeping an eye on him.
He said he knows that this sounds weird, but I know that high strangeness is a common factor concerning close encounters and ET contact. Following an extraordinary event, many experiencers of ET contact spend their nights looking into the sky searching for answers. He wondered if “they” might have been checking up on him.
Case Investigation and Evaluation:
At 7:00 AM on December 3, 2021, the temperature at Miami Beach was 65 degrees Fahrenheit and there was no wind on the water. The sunrise was at 6:53 AM and nautical twilight was at 6:00 AM. A waning crescent moon rose at 6:00 AM. There was zero precipitation, and the sky was fair until 5:53 PM when it was partly cloudy.
The previous evening, at 6:12 PM, Space-X launched its 27th Falcon 9 rocket flight of the year. It successfully sent a cargo of 48 Starlink internet satellites and two Black Sky optical Earth imaging spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral. The two stage 229-foot Falcon 9 rocket and nine minutes after liftoff, the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster landed on the drone ship, for a successful upright landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Along with the rocket's first stage, SpaceX also recycled the clamshell-like protective hardware that encases the payload. This was not what he observed.
Space X Falcon 9 Rocket Launch and Booster Landing (Public Domain)
At 3:00 AM on December 3, 2021, the International Space Station (ISS) had to swerve away from a fragment of a U.S. launch vehicle on Friday, the head of Russia’s space agency said. It was referring to the Falcon 9 rocket launched seven hours earlier.
On the night of Friday, December 3, 2021, during EST hours, the comet Leonard passed by the fainter globular cluster NGC 5466, also known as the Snowglobe Cluster, in the night sky. However, this is not what the witness observed. It was too far away and at the wrong time, so it is not what the witness observed.
I could find no other launches, landings, or reports of space debris in the time-frame of the witness’s sighting, close encounter, and missing time event. I want to stress that the launch occurred more than twelve hours before the witness’s sighting began. This is not what he observed. The witness’s sighting started shortly before 7:00 AM the previous morning. Additionally, the witness’s observation was for two hours, and the craft approached within 600 feet of him, stopped for an indetermin-able period, and then sped off.
As a former investigator of a few hundred abduction events, nothing surprises me any longer. I have worked on three major studies on nearly 5000 experiencers and have participated in a successful communication experiment with these nonhumans. Although it is impossible to know for certain if he was taken to this craft, its modus operandi is consistent with what other contact experiencers have witnessed and sensed. His behavior immediately after his sighting and missing time event is consistent with some reports regarding the behavior of others who have been contacted or taken to craft. Some people report they feel euphoric and exhilarated like the witness felt. I was surprised that he spent the day fishing instead of heading for the shore because many experiencers feel drained of energy immediately following an abduction event. However, he was already near his fishing spot and felt energized and happy, so it makes sense that he proceeded with his plans.
It is interesting that he developed a new sensitivity to warm food and found hot, not spicy, food impossible to eat immediately following this anomalous event.
He watched the sky nearly every night following his sighting and missing time event, which is consistent with the behavior of other witnesses and experiencers of contact.
He has not observed much that he considers unusual since that time in July or August 2022, but he remains curious about what happened on December 3, 2021.
Hypnosis:
On June 2, 2023, the witness saw a seasoned professional hypnotherapist who is highly knowledgeable regarding alien abduction. Despite the hypnotherapist’s efforts the witness failed to recall a UFO abduction. At this point in time, it is impossible to determine what occurred during his two hours of "missing time." It is possible that his memories were strongly blocked but this is uncertain. It is possible that he entered a vortex that caused a two hour time distortion. We are aware that UFOs can cause time distortions. Some experiencers have been returned at an earlier time than when they were taken. Some have endured lengthy procedures but were missing only a few minutes. This time-space distortion has been discussed by government scientists.
The witness has decided not to pursue additional hypnosis at this time but is continuing to process his hypnosis session. It gave him additional small memories and details regarding his sighting, but not insight into the lost time that he is certain he experienced.
There are certain questions that cannot be answered at the present time, if ever. This is a common occurrence when human perception and time/space distortion occurs. Was the witness abducted? This question is impossible to answer. We must use caution in any anomalous event. However, one thing is for certain: the experience had a profound impact on this credible witness.
@Kathleen Marden, June 26, 2023