Stunning photo shows bizarre 'floating boat' off the UK coast in baffling image

dailystar.co.uk:

baffled when he captured a boat seemingly flying in mid-air.The strange sighting was spotted during a sunny day in Coverack, Cornwall.Martin Stroud photographed the cargo ship, and spotted the anomaly when looking at the images.But it turns out that the “mirage” he managed to capture is something only usually seen in the Arctic and only when light conditions are perfect.Posting in 'Coverack Life' Facebook group, the photographer said: “Almost looks like it's flying!

Beautiful day for a visit to Coverack.”In the picture the ship sits atop the water so perfectly still it has become the colour of the sky.While sadly not actually some kind of futuristic boat-plane hybrid, the picture amazed people on a local Facebook - group describing it as "an amazing shot".Such phenomenon has been seen before in Cornwall, with different explanations given.In 2017 Rosie Patterson in Porthleven captured what appeared to be a 'flying' container off the coast of the port.At the time it was explained as a rare state of conditions, in which the sea in the foreground of the picture was choppy, with waves, while further back out to sea where the ship was anchored the water was calm and mirror-flat.This created the illusion of the ship apparently sitting in the sky, with the horizon line placed along top of the choppy water.However, when a similar image was captured by David Morris at Gillan Cove back in March last year, a different explanation was given.At that time BBC meteorologist David Braine described as a "superior mirage", which were common in the Arctic but happened only "very rarely" in the UK.A superior mirage is one in which the image appears to be located above the real object, caused when the air below the line of sight is colder,.