When I started my nightly visits to the lake in the last week of March 1997, the weather was extremely cold. Also, working on the lake shore, even on mild nights, one becomes chilled very quickly because of the dampness. Thus, I looked a strange sight, as did any others who accompanied me. Layer upon layer of warm winter clothing, heavy Baffin boots, sleeping bags and more.
At this time I was only watching the activity over the lake, and making audio-cassette journals of what was seen.
I recall that, on the night of March 26th, I experienced what C.S.E.T.I. would term a C.E.-5. A Close Encounter of the Fifth Kind. My friend Diane and I had been watching the orbs appearing and submerging into the lake. I briefly flashed at one "orb," using a high-powered halogen lamp, recommended in the C.S.E.T.I. manual. The orb that was slowly travelling over the surface of the icy water stopped abruptly, remained stationary for a moment, and reversed. It then retreated from whence it had come, far across the lake, and headed off in the direction of New York State.
One giant step back.
I felt most discouraged but my friend pointed out that, at least, it was a response, and that is what we were attempting with our research.
On further investigation, it turned out that some military jets had been scrambled over Michigan, as similar phenomena had been detected and reported over Lake Erie. Maybe this orb had thought this was a threatening gesture.
However, this did not deter Diane and I from going out nearly every subsequent night to the lake shore. We meticulously logged each event by time, angle of elevation, duration of sighting, direction of flight path etc. This detailed journal-keeping continued until April 19th, when the orb activity started to slow right down to almost nothing.