There you are – happily sailing away in Table Bay, the most intrepid part of your day being the name of your yacht and then:
Boo!
Yep. That would be a Southern Right whale (probably a calf) jumping – or breaching, to be technically correct – onto the yacht belonging to the Cape Town Sailing Academy.
No Photoshopping here folks – this is the real deal, as reported by Joyanne’s SA Portfolio Travel blog and local newspaper Die Burger (which might be a bit Afrikaans for some readers).
The result: No injuries to crew. No apparent injury to whale.
R150,000 ($20,000) worth of injury to yacht.
Ouch!
UPDATE: And now there’s video of the allegedly harassed whale doing its thing.
First of all; the skipper should NOT have been that close to a pod of whales. I believe the minimum recommended distance is 50m…and don’t try and tell me he didn’t notice them!
Secondly, judging by the photo, both skipper and calf must have got a hell of a fright!
Tara > Reading the account on the Portfolio blog – seems like it happened pretty quickly:
But yes. Very frightening for all concerned.
Ouch indeed! That looks crazy
Oops! The area had not been child(calf)proofed before he was let out to play.
http://goo.gl/i66o
😀