In the first paragraph, it is all atmospheric distortion, the atmosphere is not perfectly clear, so after a few miles, all you see is blue, from the atmosphere. As for the ship, I have heard that it is a perspective effect, and that it is due to the ocean spray. The spray comes and covers the bottom, and then the atmospheric distortion kicks in and you loose the whole boat.
and the google earth thing, It has been covered in length in other threads, as have the other things, but those answers i know off the top of my head :lol: