What is it then?

that is perspective blocking you

...what

please explain

If it's flat water

its flat water and the boat is actually on the flat water

then where is the hull?

there is some distortion on any water

there is air vapor that makes it harder to see the more you look thru it

The water is blocking the ship, not the air

it gets far enough way with all of that air vapor, you think its part of the large mass of water but its just vapor

uhm...

its water vapor making the illusion that its not flat water

you do a side view or bring a camera to zoom in, it will get closer

and if you get a more powerful camera, you can bring it right back into focus

You can bring it into focus

it hasn't gone over any curve

but you can't see the whole thing

focus != seeing the whole object

you can see the whole thing unless its too far away and the vapor is too much

please, explain this water vapor thing more

depends on the angle your viewing it

water vapor causes some refraction

see the perspective of this hall

can you please draw a diagram of the light rays going through water vapor?

the light lights up on the ceeling are all the same size

they don't shrink, but perspective says they are shrinking

Of course. Shrinking does not at all mean covering half the object

I don't really understand the water vapour thing

A diagram would help

as far as I know, atmospheric refraction would bring a ship past the curve *back*, not obscure it

your eyes can only see 3 miles

No diagram?

:(

at least at a certain altitude

I was looking at video about this ship thing and looking at wiki on water vapor

it talks about water vapor but not being over water

Oh, sorry okay

I'll wait

suffice it to say if the sun is out, its hot enough to warm the water and create water vapor