That was my first thought (well, not the octopus part, but now that you mention it....). I am persuaded that this could be the explanation for what happens to boats, but what about planes? Of course, if there are multiple storms in a region, that could affect condition in the air too, I suppose.

@citronella I've been joking on it, but the actuality is that the area might have a storm potential that could also affect instrumentation on airplanes enough to cause major confusion. In turn this leads to crashing into toe sea.

Sea serpents may still be there - they're experts at hiding

@pixiedust Something like bigfoot, the world greatest hide N seek player.

What it does not go into is that the displacement of water by a massive wave would also displace air and has the potential to down low flying aircraft. A thousand feet does not take long to drop from if a pilot loses control.