What the hell is that!

Sat on the bridge on a quiet night watch the other evening we saw something that turned out to be pretty cool.
At first it was just a bright light on the horizon. I thought it was an distress flare. I said to Noel, "Oh shit mate, this might be interesting!" Of course we would go and check out a distress flare but off the coast of South America, could it be pirates or something similar? I checked the position and direction and there was no echo's on the radar and the light kept getting higher and brighter and I called on the radio for people to come and look. Like a huge commit streaking towards us through the night sky. I started to worry that it was a missile and then it disappeared but not for long. This was obviously a rocket and the first stage fuel had now separated and was glowing and falling back to earth, to the sea! and really not that far from where we were happily sailing along on our quiet night watch. That would be a seriously bad day!
Imagine getting hit by falling space junk. It is not something that you normally would have to worry about. I can just hear them ashore now. 'Well didn't you check for rocket launches when you did you passage plan?' We would all be sat in life rafts and watching the yacht sink under the weight of its new, large, molten hot metal, space ship shaped hat and I would have to explain to the MIAB (Marine Accident Investigation Bureau) what went wrong.
The BBC would make a report. " The British captain from Sussex was said to be shocked and stunned at such an unlucky encounter with the falling debris. He praised the actions of his crew but said that there was little they could do. "We were hoping for a new satellite dish but this is ridiculous, he said!" The yacht was said to be well built and have state or the art communication systems but was no match for the satellite deployment rocket's, first stage 'P80' motor, that smashed into it late Monday night  etc etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22405969 Looking up rocket launches on line it seems that French Guyana is quite the place for launching satellites into orbit because of its proximity to the equator. We got to see one of them and it was quite cool.