Whatever floats your boat! Ship appears to be sailing across the sky in bizarre optical illusion 

Whatever floats your boat! Ship appears to be sailing across the sky in bizarre optical illusion

  • Colin McCallum was driving on a coastal road when he spotted a ‘floating boat’
  • Optical illusion by the water and sky made the ship appear to sail among clouds
  • The puzzling footage was taken in Banff, Aberdeenshire looking at the North Sea

A bemused man has captured a stunning optical illusion showing a large boat appearing to float across the sky.

Colin McCallum spotted the red ship ‘floating’ above the horizon as he travelled through Banff, Aberdeenshire on Friday.

At first awestruck, he soon worked out how the similar colouring of the sea and sky created an optical illusion of the large vessel appears to be sitting among the clouds.

The keel of the ship is out of view and teamed up with the low lying clouds it appears difficult to see where the water ends and the clear blue skies begin.

Shocked by the sighting, Colin videoed the illusion in motion as he passed by.

The health and safety worker from Turriff, Aberdeenshire shared the clip and his images onto Facebook later on that day, writing: ‘Saw a real life optical illusion in Banff today.’

Colin McCallum spotted a stunning optical illusion of a red ‘floating vessel’ on the horizon as he travelled through Banff, Aberdeenshire on Friday

Subsequent pictures also captured by Colin show the boat high amongst the clouds.

Colin captioned over his video: ‘Saw a real life optical illusion today.’

Social media users were left stumped by the footage, with some describing it as ‘freaky’.

Speaking about the optical illusion, Colin said: ‘When I first saw the boat, I had to do a double take because I genuinely thought it was floating.

At first awestruck, he soon worked out how the similar colouring of the sea and sky created an optical illusion of the large vessel appears to be sitting among the clouds

At first awestruck, he soon worked out how the similar colouring of the sea and sky created an optical illusion of the large vessel appears to be sitting among the clouds

‘Upon further inspection, however, I noticed that it was in fact just a remarkable optical illusion.’

He added: ‘It was caused by a cloud formation closer to the shore which changed the colour of the water closer to the land.

‘The boat, being further away, was in a cloudless area and therefore the sky reflected the sea- making it look like the boat was floating.’