As I glanced over my right shoulder from my kayak in Salt River Bay, St. Croix USVI, I noticed a bright bluish-white light, much brighter than a planet. I first thought it was the landing light of a heavy jet, but all approaches for heavies into StX are made from the west into the prevailing easterlies and we were well east of the airport. It seemed stationery, but rapidly brightened over 15-20 seconds, MUCH brighter than landing lights, creating a cloud halo that got more dense as the object brightened. As the object started to fade, the surrounding cloud, about the size of a dime held at arm's length, developed a hole around the object, making it appear like a thin cloud ring or torus around the object. The object faded to the brightness of a star, but bigger and hazier, and its cloud ring was fast dissipating as it passed behind a low cloud. The duration of the sighting was 30-40 seconds, and we had the impression that it was heading right for us.A party of 14 kayakers in a different location .4 miles west of us also saw the object, and their view was not obscured at the end by the low cloud. They noted that the surrounding cloud the object dissipated and faded into nothingness.Site of sighting: 17º46'44.50" N, 64º45'03.52 W PLEASE NOTE THAT THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS IS NOT PRESENT IN YOUR DROP-DOWN LOCATION MENU ON THIS PAGE!I put in Alabama, but that's not correct.