Video: The terrifying experience of the crew of a yacht that was attacked by 30 orcas for two hours

The British yacht crew He had a terrifying experience while sailing in nearby waters Gibraltar, on the southern coast of Spain, where they were attacked by about 30 killer whales who stalked the boat for hours.

Cetaceans they hit the hull of the yacht German property all the time and even they destroyed the rudder, forcing the crew to safety in Gibraltar, according to The Sun newspaper.

Martin Evans, 45, and Nathan Jones, 27, were part of the three-person crew that transported the ship from Ramsgate in England to Greece.

Evans videotaped the ominous event that happened on June 17, and in the video you can see how the black fins of the killer whales appeared on both sides of the boat and then submerged just below.

After the attack which lasted two hours and reaching safer waters, the crew member dived the camera to show the damage to the rudder, whose end was broken.

Navigation continued to the peninsula at the southern tip of Spain, with the crew stopping there on the grounds that the yacht was too damaged to continue on its way.

The story of a crew member

“I was on duty at the time. The boat was on autopilot and we had some problems during the trip because every now and then it broke down,” Evans said in a video that compiles the footage. ‘he recorded.

He explained that at one point he turned around and saw that “The steering wheel was moving frantically from side to side.” “At first I thought, ‘Oh my God, we have a big problem with autopilot,'” he said, adding that he had realized “right away” that it was not was not because of it.

“I jumped up, got behind the wheel, turned off the autopilot so I could steer it manually, and the wheel slipped out of my hands. When I looked to my left and right (port and starboard) there were orcas on both sides of the boat, swimming alongside us and hitting the rudder. “, Evans described.

Because the seas were “quite rough”, the crew lowered the sails and turned off the electrical systems, after which they contacted the Spanish Coast Guard.

“There was nothing we could do, we just had to sit on the boat and wait for them to leave.”, said the ship’s crew member and assured: “We await the attack on the yacht with a cup of tea.”

He also admitted that they knew the ship was going to be damaged “because there was no way to withstand so much abuse.” The crew heard a metallic noise coming from the steering gear and when they looked behind the yacht they saw rudder pieces floating in the sea.

“The foam core that forms the inside of the rudder had been torn off, although we could not tell if it was pried off by a blow with a whale’s tail or if it was chewed on with their teeth,” said Evans.

“We saw one of the orcs shamelessly walk away from the ship with a piece of rudder in its mouth.”, he claimed. It wasn’t long before the crew realized they were in “dire straits.”

“We feared that if the ship started to leak and we started to sink, we would have to face the orcas in the water “He said, explaining that while they felt safe aboard the yacht, if they had been in the water, the situation “would have been petrifying”.

“Fortunately, the rudder was still attached to the boat, although it was damaged, and we still had the steering. We spent about two hours dealing with the attacking orcas and then, as suddenly as they had arrived, they were left and we managed to reach Gibraltar, ”he added.

The journey from the coast of the English county of Kent to Greece should have taken 26 days for the crew of the Halcyon Yachts, which eventually called in Gibraltar after the attack.

The navigators flew to Greece and decided not to go through Gibraltar on their return to the UK on Martin’s ship, the Aqua Sue, since according to Evans his boat would not have survived such an attack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVj7iaLGNt0

He also explained that they knew there were killer whales in that area, and even said that the company they work for “had already had ships attacked.”

“I have friends who are marine biologists all over the world and all of them are interested in these very unusual events, where killer whales decide to start attacking the rudders of ships,” he said.

Evans concluded by stating that “at the start of the year the navigation of the smaller yachts along the coast between Portugal and Spain was halted due to these attacks”, but that for the most part they ended. are produced further west than where they occurred.