SIGHTING: GREAT BARRIER REEF (AT SEA) (AUSTRALIA)

Witness Testimony

"((NUFORC Note: NUFORC has no reason to believe that this incident is, in any way, related to UFO activity. Three sailors disappear off Australia Great Barrier Reef, amid unusual circumstances.Australians still puzzling over yacht mystery (DPA) 23 April 2007 SYDNEY - Friends and relatives of the three crew members of a 12-metre catamaran found adrift last week off the Great Barrier Reef on Australia’s east coast have not given them up for dead. Despite authorities giving up the search for survivors, loved ones said Monday that they hadn’t lost hope. “We’ve got family over there,” the wife of one of the missing sailors said. “They’re chartering boats, they’re going out looking, ... and we’re going to find them.” When the Kaz II was found Friday, the sails were up, the engine was running, a laptop computer was on, the table was set for a meal, and three life jackets and the emergency beacon were still on board - as were the wallets and mobile phones of the three Perth sailing chums. No distress message had been sent. Adding to the mystery were neatly folded clothes at the stern of the luxury boat. The only sign of distress was a tattered sail. Police said they thought the men may have fallen overboard during a storm eight days ago and ruled the chances of finding them alive almost zero. The search was called off Saturday. “This is one of those cases in which there has been a lot of speculation, but there is nothing to indicate other people were involved or there may have been some kind of crime,” Townsville police spokesman Warren Webber said. “We can come up with various ranges and hypotheses and theories as to what may have happened.” A forensic examination of the boat and its equipment has not unravelled the mystery. Sailors point out that a table laid for a meal and neatly folded clothes don’t jibe with the rough seas that Webber says may have tipped the trio overboard. David Dellow, a Townsville sailor, told Australia’s ABC Radio that he suspected the boat had been boarded by pirates. “How do you get three guys to disappear at once?” he asked. His scepticism about a weather-related catastrophe was echoed by Whitsundays Yacht Club chief Jeremy Cooper. “Even two is explainable, with perhaps one going in after the other. But three? You just can’t imagine why that would happen,” Cooper said. Credit: Khaleej Times Online, April 23, 2007."