I was taking a late-night walk along the shore in jax beach since the moon was bright, the air was crisp, and i needed to work out some pent up energy, listening to music as i usually did, walking southward toward the pier. i had already made my first trip down to the end of the line of condos and was on my way back. typically i didn't look around very much, due to many sharp shells, but i glanced over my right shoulder, and i saw what i first assumed to be a passenger plane coming in for a landing-- and suddenly panicked realizing it must be a crash landing, as there were, obviously, no strips around, (and i took my earbuds out in a panic). the craft even turned rather nose-up as a landing jet would do, but the more i stared at this...Thing, it became apparent that this was not, in fact, a passenger plane, and was extremely close, in the way it passed behind the 1st street condos. it may have been larger, and farther away, or smaller and much closer-- it's difficult to say, as the only features were the three red lights, all moving in perfect, consistent distance from each other. it continued on this path, rising slowly, still nose tilted up, several hundred, not more than a thousand feet past the pier before making a total u-turn- and a quick one, too, curving back downwards toward the ground. at this point i was absolutely certain it was nothing commercial, and it flew over the water, faster than it had over land (but certainly not "fast"- absolutely not more than 60mph), back north, i'd estimate no further than 200 feet further out into the ocean than the tip of the pier itself. it slowed down and came almost to a stop, very close to the surface of the waves. there was an faint white light on the waters surface below where i could only estimate the craft was, despite the lights on it being red. seemingly uneventful before it continued on back north and eventually disappeared into the distance.
the roar of the ocean there at the beach is incredible, such that you can hear it over music played at full volume in your ears, so the craft may or may not have made noise.
there were several other people on the beach at the same time as me, notably a young couple playing in the water almost up under the pier, and a group of three or four very lanky college-aged guys walking the opposite direction as myself. i do not recall anyone walking at all during this event, and afterwards nobody spoke to anyone, even people walking together. i was very upset by what i'd seen and was in a hurry to leave-- upset to the point one feels afraid to run, and began making my way back to the boardwalk connecting my street to the beach, and walking through the dunes passed a young woman who looked, as one might say, as if they'd seen a ghost. zombielike. i asked her if she was ok, if she saw what happened, and only got the faintest reaction. dunno if i hope more that she was drugged up or that she'd seen what i'd seen. no reaction from the men, either, but i didn't ask them-- at that point i hadn't yet worked up the nerve.
when i arrived home i quickly asked my mother if she had heard or seen anything. she quickly wrote it off as recreational drones and glowing jellyfish, when pressed said it might have been a test plane/flight from the nearby base.
as soon as i was done talking to her i nearly ran to my computer and started scouring facebook for any mentions, assuming someone would have immediately posted something, found nothing, then spent the rest of the night tossing and turning with anxiety.
