About halfway between British Virgin Islands and North Carolina, on sailing vessels, at night, star size light zigzagging at great spee

I was on watch alone aboard a recreational 50' sailing boat, coming from the British Virgin Islands to North Carolina (we were in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle) in 1986 or 87.  I'd have to check records.  The other two crew members were asleep below deck.  
It was after midnight I think and I suddenly noticed what I thought was a satellite moving across the sky.  I say satellite because it looked like a star but was moving past them all above me from southwest to northeast.  I just assumed that is what a satellite looks like.  
Then, all of a sudden, after about 10 seconds of me observing it moving past the stars (from my perspective), it sped up to a tremendous speed but in a zigzag fashion.  It took very sharp turns at quite sharp angles, probably three or four times, each time over distances that equalled the distance of its initial slow straight line journey that I first observed.  It then disappeared into the stars.  It appeared to have travelled huge distances at great speeds and completed fantastical sharp turns.  
I never told anyone until years later.
Witness indicates that the date is approximate.  PD