WTF was this???

[spence]

So Fishbones and I are on RIJIMMY's boat tonight, in the West Passage, around 8:30pm looking for some bass. RIJIMMY was there as well.

I look to the south, and remark, what the eff is that???

What would look to be several thousand feet in the air and off the South County shore is a gigantic inverted plume that's glowing bright white. It's freaking huge (20 degrees across if you're into astronomy, if you're not a geek hold both fists together at arms length), gathers to a point at the top and is wide at the base.

After a minute, the light is gone and the plume slowly dissipates, lit only by the reflected light from land. We couldn't see any aircraft lights moving away from the focus of the plume.

The ONLY thing I can think of would be a jet aircraft dumping fuel, but I don't know of any situations where they do this that's not an emergency.

???

-spence