Sphere with lights encircling its equater hovering above a lake in Florida for 25+minutes in the 1960's

My father told me this when I was 27.  He had always been a down to earth man and I could not believe what he said.  I am searching for others who may know what he was talking of.  
It was 1960 something, he was with his first wife.  They were heading towards Orlando on a main highway of the time.  They were passing a lake and saw a sphere hovering over it.  
He stopped and got out, stood and watched the thing for 25 or more minutes.  He said it was sphere shaped and had lights circling it around its equater.  
The lights started spinning faster and it rose up just a little.  Then he said it shot off into the distance.  He said it didn't disappear, he could see it as it went into the distance, but so fast it was as if it just disappeared.  
He said there was no sound of machinery and no thunder as it shot through the air.  
He went on to say that others who had seen it said they had seen a pole or something in the water and that it retracted before it rose up...as if it were taking on water.  
He said he saw nothing of the sort and that he had a very good view.  This was in broad daylight and is very adament that he knows there is extra terrestrial life due to what he saw.  
I have known him for 28 years now and the story is so uncharacteristic, I believe him.  Can anyone give me insight as to a particular sighting that this may have been?  
He said others saw it.
Date is unknown, even though the source of the report should be able to determine when he was 27 years of age.  We have assigned an arbitrary date above.  PD