Orca “attack”

On October 31 we were half way on a delivery of a Jeanneau 54 from Alicante (Spain) to Lelystad in The Netherlands, the new home port for this luxury yacht. With speeds of around 8 to 10 knots we were sailing in a 25 knots breeze about 10 miles off Cape Finisterre along the Nordwest coast of Spain.

Moments before the Orca encounter

Initially we had not seen the Orca’s and the first we knew about it was when the wheel was ripped out of the helm’s hands. Fortunately we were steering by hand and not on the autopilot.

My first thought was a steering failure of the helmsman, but when we made a 180 turn and tacked my next thought was of some kind of mechanical failure of the steering mechanism. But then we felt the rudder was hit again and saw the Orca’s behind and next to the boat.

Lately the writing press and some television stations payed attention to Orca attacks arround the coast of Spain and Portugal. The still unexplained spate of apparent attacks on yachts caused serious damage to several boats and leaving crews needing rescue. To guarantee the safety of people and the Orcas themselves Spain’s transport ministry said yachts of less than 15 metres in length would be banned from sailing close to the coast between Cape Prioriño Grande and Estaca de Bares point in Galicia. “The measure is intended to prevent new encounters with the orcas which have, over recent weeks, been responsible for various incidents in Galicia’s coastal area, mainly involving sailing vessels” the ministry said in a statement.

So far, reading these reports, such an event feels still far away for me. Our Jeanneau 54 is 16m. in length so there were no restrictions for us. However, before leaving Alicante we discussed about a possible encounter with aggressive Orca’s. The conclusion was clear:

• no hands on the helm
• no engine or shut it off when in use
• turn off all electronics, special the deep sounder
• lower all sails
• do nothing but wait until the Orca’s lose their interest in the boat.

So, and that is what we did. During 15 to 20 minutes they ram the hull and particularly the rudder. We let the boat drifting, lost all steering and the boat was spun 360 several times. After about one hour it looks as they were gone.

We set sail again and went to the nearest port, Muxia. The boat handled well and there seems to be no problem with the steering.

The next day I made a video of the rudder with my watertight action cam, which I had tied to the boat hook. Everything seems to be all right and no damage was seen.

Knowing this was really comforting for the next 1000 miles sailing home.