Reminds me of the Ghost Car video we posted a while ago.

‘Ghost yacht’ found floating off Great Barrier Reef

Rescuers in Australia are trying to solve the mystery of a yacht found drifting in calm waters off the Great Barrier Reef with food on the table, computers and engine running, but no sign of the three-man crew.

The 12-metre catamaran Kaz II was first spotted drifting off north Queensland on Wednesday by an aircraft on coastguard duty. A rescue helicopter was sent to the scene and circled overhead several times, with the pilot radioing back that there was no one aboard.

“It looked like the boat had been recently abandoned. The engine was still running in neutral [but] one of the sails had been damaged,” he said.

“There was a laptop computer on board and running with power, the computers on board were running, all of their clothing was still there.

“The table was actually set for a meal with food and cutlery in place. The radio was working, the GPS was working and things below deck were normal except for the absence of crew.”



  1. tom says:

    divers were out when they came?

  2. Rene Knigge says:

    was thinking that too, then again. Somebody would have stayed on board. So what happened to that person?
    All in all a pretty spooky situation

  3. Gary Marks says:

    Isn’t this exactly what many Christians believe would happen at the time of “the Rapture”? I think it’s pretty clear that these people were taken, and those of us remaining on earth have been left behind to endure the Tribulation and Apocalypse.

    Wow, to those of you who thought you were on the list to be raptured, thanks for playing our game, and we have some lovely parting gifts (oops — maybe we should call them “staying gifts”) for you.

  4. sdf says:

    You would think they’d be able to tell if the crew were divers once they boarded the craft. A classic strange tale.

  5. Smartalix says:

    If they were diving and had any intelligence they would have flown diver down. If pirates did it the stuff would all be gone.

  6. mark says:

    6. This is strange, but this would appear to be a diving accident, maybe a diver in distress and the man on board went to assist. I know from experience many recreational divers dont own or use a flag in open ocean dive situations. And the typical stripe flag is not observed in all countries.

  7. Gig says:

    My bet. Two folks onboard. A & B. A fell in B went in to help and both are now shark poo.

  8. mark says:

    What was I thinking? After a better look, No one dives from a boat who sails are set. Another thing, the positioning of the fenders on the port side of that boat is strange for the size of that dinghy off the stern. Another boat alongside perhaps. A man overboard and the inexperienced crew trying to rescue him (the torn sail). It is strange.

  9. sdf says:

    There were 3 men on board

    http://tinyurl.com/24dz43

  10. mark says:

    10. That was a better article than the one posted stating:

    “The only thing out of place was a badly torn sail and the fenders – usually pulled up when under way – were still down.”

    The fenders in that position would mean another boat tied up alongside. Or very sloppy seamanship. Foul play suspected.

  11. gordon says:

    When was last contact – by radio, email, etc.? Only article I’ve seen (on AOL news) quotes someone talking about weather on Sun and Mon as if they could have been missing that long. I would think you could get a rough idea how long the food had been sitting there just by looking at it.
    Seems to me the most likely explanation is they wanted to disappear – another boat pulled alongside, they sailed away to new identities, and in 7 years ( in most countries IIRC) their beneficiaries get payout from life insurance.

  12. John Paradox says:

    They met the crew from the Marie Celeste.

    J/P=?

  13. Pfkad says:

    #3 may be right. Lots of pirates in that area, mainly Malaysian. Why they’d take the occupants and leave the boat is another matter for conjecture.

  14. MikeN says:

    This is early advertising for the 4th season of Lost, which started in Australia.

  15. TJGeezer says:

    This is early advertising for the 4th season of Gilligan’s Island, which started in Australia.

  16. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    #11 – mark

    “The fenders in that position would mean another boat tied up alongside. Or very sloppy seamanship. Foul play suspected.”

    I agree. I’d say that’s about as far as we can conject, given the available evidence…

  17. hhopper says:

    WOW! The ghost car video that Uncle Dave mentioned has 571 comments. Amazing!

  18. edwinrogers says:

    A bit out-of-the-way for the North Korean Navy, don’t you think?

  19. Rob says:

    George Bush: “Karl, please help! Too many bad things happening to me! We need something, something in the news, something to deflect the public’s attention…”

    Karl Rove: “I got it! We’ll get a yacht and float it off the Australian coast, set it up to look like its crew mysteriously disappeared. The media and the sheeple will eat it up for days…!”

  20. Angel H. Wong says:

    Evolution at hand.

  21. laineypie says:

    they sprouted wings and flew away.

  22. KVolk says:

    The Bermuda Triangle is now the Aussie quadrangle.

  23. K B says:

    Quit making reference to that ghost car video, Uncle Dave. You know how JCD likes to gloat about his numbers on that one!

  24. me says:

    Guess the needed Ted Nugent on board.

  25. Smartalix says:

    26,

    I think it’s more like a rhombus.

  26. tallwookie says:

    Yar!! They’ve done journied to Davey Jones’s Locker!!

    Yar!

  27. hagbard says:

    Space aliens took them.

  28. Don Mattox says:

    As a meteorologist on the gulf coast I experenced a “pressure front” where the wind jumped from 5 mph to 45 mph and down again in the space of a minute or so. Small planes turned over, etc. If this happens to a sailboat it would heel over unexpectedly possibly throwing all three overboard, shredding the said and throwing the fender overboard. It should have caused chaos in the cabin however. Mystery!!!!

  29. CJC says:

    32. If this was the case then the food would be on the floor and not on the table.


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