You were looking forward to this cruise,
but now
it's starting to feel like
you’re on the Titanic.
And as the ship lurches from side to side,
in a battle to stay afloat,
you grab the nearest life preserver.
Will you be the next person
to vanish in these infamous waters?
It's said to be
one of the most sinister spots on Earth.
The Bermuda Triangle,
also known as the Devil's Triangle,
is an area in the Atlantic Ocean
that runs from Florida
to Bermuda
to Puerto Rico.
There have been 1,000 deaths
in the Bermuda Triangle
in the last 200 years.
And if you're not careful,
you could be next.
The Bermuda Triangle is also referred to
as "The Hoodoo Sea,"
"Limbo of the Lost," and
"The Twilight Zone".
By 1977, the Bermuda Triangle had garnered
so much hype that
filmmaker Steven Spielberg
made references to it in
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind,"
and showed a plane being
abducted by aliens.
The Triangle covers
700,000 sq km (270,000 sq mi).
And it's one one of the busiest
maritime routes in the world,
with ships traveling
from North America to Europe
and the Caribbean every day,
plus plenty of private pleasure craft
and cruise ships.
But there has to be some reason why
1,000 people died in the Bermuda Triangle
in the last 200 years.
So what could you do to survive?
Conduct in-depth maintenance
on your vessel's communication systems,
as well as routine safety checks.
In most cases,
when planes and ships
vanished in the Triangle,
they never logged distress calls.
This means that the crew
didn’t know they were in danger
until it was too late.
So if you want to be cautious
when going through this area,
keep an open line
with someone on land via radio
and electronic communication,
and make sure they are aware
of your location at all times.
Ancient sailors navigated by the stars,
then the compass,
and today we have GPS equipment.
But in the Bermuda Triangle,
ships and planes
have reported their compasses
going on the fritz.
In one area,
magnetic anomalies make compasses point
to true north instead of the magnetic
north pole.
Even Christopher Columbus
noted it in his log,
back in 1492.
So know where it might happen,
and have a plan to navigate safely
despite inaccurate readings.
If you spot any bizarre-looking fog,
such as low hanging fog,
or fog with strange green or gray colors,
watch out.
It's known as “electronic fog,”
and if it surrounds your vessel,
you can expect it to affect
your navigational systems.
One person who lived to tell about it
is Bruce Gernon.
In his book,
Gernon states he was flying
through the Triangle from the Bahamas,
en route to Palm Beach, Florida.
A fog descended upon his plane,
and time suddenly froze in a vortex,
which he called
“electronic fog.”
His plane was missing from radar screens.
Later, it re-emerged close to Miami Beach.
The strange thing is,
he managed to fly 160 km (100 mi,)
but in 30 minutes less than normal.
How could that have happened?
Gernon believes the fog
allowed him to travel through time.
He writes,
"Some of the instruments
were malfunctioning.
The wet compass was spinning slowly,
counter-clockwise, all by itself.
The electronic navigational instruments
were all malfunctioning.
And at the same time,
I traveled 30 minutes through time”.
So if you see some strange fog
on the horizon,
get the heck out of there.
Nature creates some powerful forces,
including rogue waves.
They've been cited as the reason why
many ships have disappeared
in the oceans.
And bubbling seas have been listed
as a possible reason why ships vanish
in the Bermuda Triangle.
Could the methane gas in the seabed
have caused hundreds of vessels
to disappear?
Researchers at the Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, California
tested whether bubbles can sink objects
floating on the surface of water.
Their lab experiment shows
it could happen in an enclosed container.
But what about out in the ocean?
Researcher Bruce Denardo says,
"If a phenomenon can be made
to occur in a lab,
it probably occurs somewhere
in the natural universe".
So if the seafloor farts,
you might not want to be sailing over it.
Our advice is to
try to avoid areas with methane deposits,
and watch out for storms and hurricanes.
Also, steer clear of places where
rogue waves and possibly
dangerous bubbles could occur.
The Bermuda Triangle
is a heavily trafficked
part of the world.
And despite the reports of missing planes
and ships,
the possibility of you having
a fatal mishap is quite low.
But there have been a lot of reported
UFO sightings in the area,
so keep your eyes to the sky.
If you do get beamed up to a UFO,
we already have you covered,
right here on How to Survive.