Light over Coeur d'Alene, ID

The report, as filed

My wife and I took our sailboat to Beauty Bay in northeast Lake Coeur d' Alene, ID. We like this part of the lake because it is secluded and quiet this time of year, with buoys that we can tie up to. We arrived at about 8 pm and went to into the cabin to sleep at about 9 pm. No other boats were in the area and there is only 1 house on the bay. At 10:26 pm, I woke up to the boat rocking back and forth pretty intensely, like it would if caught in a storm. The water in this bay is still and calm, even in the busy part of the year, so I was concerned. Still in bed, I glanced around the cabin and saw white light coming in from the port side windows. The boat was still rocking hard, which then woke up my wife. She was scared, and I turned my attention to her. She said, "Oh my god, I think someone's on the boat, did you see that light?" I was looking at her, and away from the cabin entry door, which she said filled with light as though from flashlights from someone above us. She asked me to go check it out. By that point the boat stopped rocking, maybe 15 seconds after I woke up. I grabbed my phone, turned on its flash light, and tentatively opened the overhead sliding door. I looked around the cockpit of the boat, and saw nothing. The water at this point was perfectly calm and the area was awash in silence. Everything appeared normal and there was no sign of intruders. I turned to look at the bow of the boat and saw nothing. Up in the southeast sky (or maybe south west, I don't know which direction the boat was pointing at the time) I saw a bright white light that I at first thought was a helicopter. The light shined down toward my area, but was rotating in circles, as though looking for something. The craft was relatively low, just above the neighboring hills, possibly lower as it made its way over the bay. The craft made no sound. I assumed it was a helicopter and retreated back into the cabin. We woke up in the morning at 7:30 and talked about the night, trying to rationalize what happened. I can normally explain events with science or justify them with surroundings, but this time I had nothing. What rocked the boat in a calm, lonely bay? What filled the cabin with light? What was the silent craft pointing it's light down toward us? My wife called the local police, who said there were no helicopters, police nor medical, in the area. They also called Spokane, who also didn't have any activity in the area. The lady on the phone recommended we contact the UFO reporting center, which is something I never thought I'd need to do. I am 39 years old and own a marketing company. I'm college educated and have never touched drugs, nor do I drink alcohol. ((ADDENDUM FROM WITNESSES, FOLLOWING RADIO APPEARANCE ON JUNE 01, 2016.) Bright light and rocking boat on calm waters. ADDENDUM to original report by ((husband's name deleted)) and ((wife's name deleted)) There are a couple of pieces of additional information I feel we should mention. The boat rocked hard at an estimated 15 degree angle, back and forth port to starboard roughly every second for about 15 seconds. After the boat shook, my husband said the water remained glass-like and perfectly still. He was on deck just seconds after the boat became still, yet the water showed no turbulence or other signs of disturbance. After checking the boat for intruders and scanning the bay for other boats, ((husband)) noticed the light in the sky and watched until it faded away. He said it was about the altitude of the surrounding hills and smaller than the full moon but very bright. The light was likely in the southeast sky moving northwest. (Determined by the most likely positioning of the boat in the water.) The light didn't streak or shoot away, just faded. ((husband)) then came back into the cabin assuming it was a helicopter. I questioned why it wasn't making any noise and wondered where it went after he lost sight of it, but we didn't have an answer. After the incident occurred, we crawled under the covers, held each other, and both fell back to sleep very quickly. Morning came in a flash. The relief in knowing there wasn't anyone else on board our boat was comforting and the bizarre circumstances didn't begin to alarm us until we had time to ponder the events when we woke up. In addition, we were awakened by the chirping of at least a dozen birds the next morning. When I finally peeked out of the cabin door, I had to take a video because there were birds chirping and fighting and flying quickly all around the boat. That hadn't happened on other boat trips. After stopping the video, more birds tried landing on the metal railings on the boat and flew back quickly, seemingly unable or unwilling to land. Others were able to land on the canvas cover on the back of the boat, but fought for the area. The birds were not unique... Their behavior was. That's when we descended back into the cabin to discuss the possibilities and try to explain the strange night. We ruled out cars passing on a shore road, ruled out other boats, and ruled out someone getting on the boat. We even wondered if a car had fallen into the bay. There was no evidence of anything of the sort. Nothing explained the sudden rocking, the still water, the bright light filling the cabin, and the strange light in the sky. The fact remained that we were alone on the water in a deserted bay, so that's when I decided to call the local police and start asking questions to hopefully explain what happened. So far there has been no logical explanation of the events from that night. We will send photos of the bay that were taken in the evening, just a few hours prior to the event. The images show the surrounding hills and the smooth water of the quiet bay. ((END ADDENDUM, PREPARED BY WIFE)) We spoke via telephone with both the husband and wife, and they both sounded to us to be quite sober-minded people. We suspect that they are highly reliable, and capable, people. PD

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #127214). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.