Changing over Venice, FL

The report, as filed

It's almost 3 a.m. Earlier tonight we decided to take the five minute drive to the beach here on gorgeous Venice Island. The vibration around midnight is quiet and calm with the background sound of crickets starting to audibly tune in to the land's energy, or could it be that the sound is tuning the land and the airwaves? The Stars were a million in the sky. The New Moon was yesterday, July 4th, 2016. Tonight's sky was so clear without a moon, that looking at it made us feel as we we were one with all of the vastness. We are. Yes, we all are. We each had a beach blanket and a chair. Kaitlynn was on her beach blanket, staring up to the sky as I had my focus on my camera, looking away at the perfect time to catch a bright shooting star sailing across the sky. Within a 20 minute time she saw 4 more falling stars, as my eyes were intent on getting the perfect shot. The camera is new to me and it certainly doesn't lie. Ever. Especially when I'm a little shaky with the hand, it always tells the truth, and nothing but. My camera is my boyfriend. We sat back in the chairs for one last look before we left. Kaitlynn pointed towards the pier, slowly following something with her eyes and her pointer finger, asking if I see "that." I saw a blurry, short white line of faint, slow but steady flashing light, that appeared to be moving south to north amongst the top of the low clouds on the horizon. At first I thought an airplane, but the light was too smooth, too straight, and low, plus we could not hear anything to reference that it was a plane. A plane that close to the water would echo. It was silent. I said "Someone on the pier must have a laser." It did appear that they were shining a little laser light into the clouds, moving it forward. When it was at the point in front of us, it instantly changed course moving west to east under the surface of the water, directly toward us; dim, yet now, solid light. Its size did not change as it moved toward us, coming from the horizon. As its distance closed in on us, about 20 feet away under the surface of the water, Kaitlynn grasped onto her chair handles like bracing for something, this was real. The moment after she braced, it moved to the north a little and emerged about 10 feet away, 4 feet off of the ground, looking like a firefly, then gently hovering just over the sand. It lingered along the shore momentarily. Us, losing it in the darkness, like it was hiding it's light. It came to check if we had noticed it, and we had. We started to walk towards where it surfaced, but since it was not lighting up, we did not find it and had that certain feeling not to look for it any longer. I would think that it would appear to grow larger, the closer it came, true? It's mathematical. This did not change its size, although each atmosphere that it entered, it was a different and a constant other size. In the clouds it looked like a small plane but mathematics ruled that down to someone pointing a laser echoing in the humidity of the clouds. In the water it appeared as a quarter-sized white light, over the sand it was the size of a lightning bug and yellowish. Kaitlynn saw a blue color at some point too. Prior to the sighting, I wanted to hear a song that describes the sky perfectly since it fit the moment. A few lines are simple metaphors that we all can relate to. I love lyrics like that. "...the sky resembles a backlit canopy with holes punched in it." was this starry night. The song is Incubus' "I wish you were here." It goes on to say "I'm counting UFOs, signaling them with my lighter ... and in this moment I am happy. Happy." A few minutes later was the sighting. This is real. Whatever it is was mind-blowing. I don't know how else to describe it.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #128326). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.