UFO Over Key West
So, we are driving last Saturday, up to Key Largo to swim with the dolphins. We’re in two vehicles - the RV and a rented minivan. (My dad and step-mom were in for the weekend and the car we normally tow can’t handle all of us.) I’m in the RV and Angie is in the minivan.
I get a frantic phone call when we are about 20 miles out of Key West from Angie.
“Look to your left, at 10:00. What is that?!”
“It is a plane,” I said.
We had just passed a small airport and I was sure a plane was what she was freaking out about.
After several exchanges of “it is a plane”, “no it is not” I pull the RV over and Angie finally shows me exactly what she’s talking about.
She is right, it is not a plane. It is some sort of white blimp, just hovering. And it seems to be at least a few miles up.
We figured it was some sort of weather experiment and went on our way.
Ironically, when we came back down to Sugarloaf Key yesterday, we picked a campground from which the blimp is clearly visible. I broke out the binoculars yesterday afternoon and got a good look. It is tethered. And that is pretty amazing considering how high up it is.
With the curiosity nearly killing me, I did some googling and found out what it was.
It is called Fat Albert and it is located on Cudjoe Key. It is part of NORAD’s air defense network. it is literally tethered to the ground by a 10,000 foot cable.
One of the reports I read said that there were two of them, one for surveillance and one for broadcasting TV Marti - similar to Voice of America - into Cuba. However, reports indicate that Hurricane Dennis destroyed the TV Marti blimp in 2005.
Here is an interesting, but unconfirmed, story of how one Fat Albert broke loose during a storm and dragged a fishing boat nearly to Cuba.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Looks like one of the beer stand markers at golf tournaments to me, cept much much higher.