A Whale's Tale

From senior field analyst Thos. Reed: Ralph Mothes and Paloma Werner of the Cape Town Sailing Academy had a very close call when a whale breached right on to their yacht recently.

Paloma says:

“We had been taking some pictures and had just decided to head back when a Southern Right whale, between 11 - 14 m long, breached about 100 meters away from us. It then suddenly breached about 10 meters from us and then – right on us! We were sailing so had no engine and we could not even take any action. Scary!
The whale as it breaches. Ralph can be seen at the helm.

The images tell the story of the damage caused. The whale appeared to be unharmed and nobody on board was hurt, but the damage to the vessel was severe.

Devastation. Luckily nobody was hurt.