Posted by Dave W on August 12, 2000 at 09:57:16 from dewaller.demon.co.uk:
Walking on a pleasantly warm afternoon near the Pyefleet Channel, where AR found a safe mooring for himself sometime in the late 30s, and situated about 20 miles down the coast from Secret Water, I was scanning the open sea for any signs of water spouts etc., as one does.
Rather curiously, the hulls of various sailing vessels on the distant horizon appeared through the binoculars to have very exaggerated hull dimensions in the vertical plane, but the effect was not apparent for the sails. The vertical wave motion of the distant seas also appeared similarly exaggerated.
What I was seeing could have either been possibly the after-effects of lunch, or more likely, optical distortion due to varying air density just above the sea level.
Does anybody know the correct scientific explanation and is this a common phenomenon?