Other Side Of The World

A multi-million dollar 180-foot yacht ran into some major trouble Friday off the Straits of Florida. Police say the boat “Déjà Vu” crashed into some rocks off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.The rocks managed to rip a 20-by-4-foot hole in the hull.The captain grounded the yacht to keep it from sinking. Several Coast Guard and private towing vessels managed to pump out the water that gushed into the boat.The yacht “features a dedicated crew of six headed by Captain TN Thomas.

After repairs the yacht continued on down the Straits of Florida to the Bahamas. The Communication Officer was monitoring messages to and from the yachts home base. Yes this was one of Diablo Del Mar’s many yachts. One was actually a sail boat, while the other was a Bermuda sloop.Diablo was thinking of racing this year, but wanted a leisurely cruise with friends first. The group of eight – four couples planned to sail most of the Caribbean Island area. There was a quick stop planned at San Juan, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Bermuda before heading back to the Atlantic coast of Miami.It was a lot of sailing, but the Atlantic weather was usually quiet. All the hurricanes and tropical storms were located in the Gulf of Mexico.

The boat was fairly quiet. The passengers were still sleeping. The chef finish preparing the crews’ breakfast, and was about to prepare for the passengers.At about 07:00 hours, the ship had completed an eighteen hour communications inspection in anticipation of the upcoming sailing race. A routine message was logged, and the communication officer noticed that all of the information coming in was rubbish. He checked the alternate machines, and they too were sending rubbish. Walking to the intercom, he informed the bridge about the problem. A reply told him that all of the communication hardware was malfunctioning.The 1^st Officer on the bridge informed him that all of the compasses had malfunctioned.The compasses were showing the boat’s coordinates were 115.24263°E, -32.321384°S (-32.119801111793265,115.90576171875)–Perth, Australia. The yacht should be closer to -64.7573700°W,32.3213840°N (32.119801111793265,-64.09423828125) – East of Bermuda.

“That’s impossible!” The Communication Officer’s mind was racing. “That would put us on the other side of the world,” he thought. On a 12 hour clock, if it was approximately 07:00 or 7:00AM in Bermuda, it was 19:00 or 7:00PM in Perth, Australia. The crew ran outside to check the horizon.At dusk the beginning of darkness in the evening could be seen, and occurs after twilight, when the sky generally remains bright and blue. The crew did not expect to see the sunset. That would mean the boat reached the point at which the earth had rotated enough, that the sun is no longer visible from the local horizon. They expected to see nautical dawn.This is the time at which there is enough sunlight for the horizon and some objects to be distinguishable. They could just make out land – and in the sky – an object shaped like a saucer half-moon shaped, oval in fore and convex in the aft. The crew reported an orange - red fireball with a long tail travel from south-west to north-east in ten seconds.There was no sound or sparkle from the object.

The crew fell silent, all of them.The passengers were still asleep, and the Captain was thankful for that. He had the 1^st Office verify the yacht’s position, and notify the harbor master. How was he going to explain to Mr. Diablo Del Mar the Déjà Vu traveled to the opposite side of the earth, misplace 12 hours in what seemed was less than 10 minutes? The Captain could not get his head around the UFO. He ordered the crew not to discuss the event with the passengers just yet. The Communication Officer contacted the home base, and reestablished communications.To add to the Captain’s dilemma, the yacht was reported missing when communications failed, and they did not arrive at port. They were 12 hours overdue. There was an all-out search by the Coast Guard – both sea and air. Wow, what kind of report could they make?

Captain TN Thomas was a 20 year veteran of the sea. He retired from the US Navy, and was Captain of the yacht for five years. He’d made many trips between Miami, the entire Caribbean island area and the Atlantic east to the Azores.Like everyone else, he knew the more familiar triangular boundary in most written works has as its points somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Miami, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda. He also knew most of the reported accidents focused along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits. In all his years, he never encountered anything – nothing like this!

“What the Bloody Hell?!” Mr. Del Mar was overwhelmed. How did we go to sleep and end up on the other side of the world? “No way in Hell!”

The Captain, 1^st Officer and Mr. Del Mar arrived in Perth while the other passengers ate. They had a meeting with the Harbor Master. The 1^st Officer brought a newspaper. The headlines were shouting at him. Yesterday’s West Australian newspaper ran a story of a UFO sighting.According to the article, the object described as a fireball was seen from Albany and Esperance in the south-west heading north-east, crossing Kununurra, Halls Creek, and Wyndham on the north-east WA-Northern Territory border.The Perth Observatory’s director Dr. ET Home was quoted as saying that he believed the object was either a meteor traveling 120-140 miles, or a Russian satellite that was disintegrating.The lights and “fire” was explained as the fragments burning up as they entered the earth’s atmosphere.

The newspaper reported that earlier in the evening a man from Perth, WA reporting seeing a black cylinder-like object with flames coming from the back, traveling silently from east to west at the same speed as a light airplane. The other recent report of a sighting in the same newspaper was I was from a man staring into the eastern sky. He stated that a bright light pulsating toward his direction appeared to be on the usual plane flight path to Perth. The light veered off to his left according to the article, andsuddenly changed direction and turned right. The light was then stationary for approximately 15 minutes and then it disappeared.

The meeting with the Harbor Master included the military and police representative. The men from the yacht were unable to give a reliable explanation for their trip. The Captain showed his charts plotting a course from Fort Lauderdale to Bermuda. He also had the dated-time stamped communications from home base before communications went down. How did the yacht get from Bermuda to Perth, Australia?

After some research before heading home, the Captain found that Perth was a place of many UFO sightings. There were many stories from the Australian Aboriginal that many considered to be myths. InmyCommunity.com provided pictures of UFO’s from 2010. There are countless organizations dedicated to UFO sightings in Australia. What is most interesting – fact Perth, Australia is the antipode for Bermuda.In geography, two points that are antipodal one another are connected by a straight line running through the center of the Earth.Perth is the point on the Earth's surface which is most diametrically opposite to Bermuda. The yacht cut the distance between the two places by traveling through the center of the Earth instead of circling the Earth – if such a thing was possible.The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. According to J. W. Gregory (1912) The Making of the Earth, p 138, less than 4% of land is antipodal to land.

Tired and confused, crew and passengers set sail for Miami, forgoing the rest of the trip. Chef had to stock up on extra supplies. The 1^st Officer plotted a course where they could fuel up, and gave them the shortest sailing route. So far the weather and wind was in their favor, but that could change at any time. The route plotted was busy shipping and cruise routes and land. The Captain did not want to be out in open water alone.If they disappeared again, he was hoping at least one ship could say they sighted the Déjà Vu.