About the issue of whether it made a sound or not. If you line up and tab through the images in sequence, you can see a guy get out of his car and look towards the general direction of the "splashdown" or "pole striking". It's in the third quadrant of the shots, a little yellow car. The man gets out in the 3rd frame. Now judging by the movements of the tug boat, the speed boat, and the reaction time taken by a man in a hurry to get out of a car. I'd say there's approximately 2 seconds between each frame.
Also the trail behind the object is straight. Almost perfectly straight for all of its appearance in the image.
Another thing to keep in mind, the engines of boats can often create a nice puff of white smoke upon ignition. And that is a dock.
Slashdot Mirror
About the issue of whether it made a sound or not. If you line up and tab through the images in sequence, you can see a guy get out of his car and look towards the general direction of the "splashdown" or "pole striking". It's in the third quadrant of the shots, a little yellow car. The man gets out in the 3rd frame. Now judging by the movements of the tug boat, the speed boat, and the reaction time taken by a man in a hurry to get out of a car. I'd say there's approximately 2 seconds between each frame.
Also the trail behind the object is straight. Almost perfectly straight for all of its appearance in the image.
Another thing to keep in mind, the engines of boats can often create a nice puff of white smoke upon ignition. And that is a dock.