Sailboat Sunk by whale. Saved by WhatsApp

[Breakaway]

And a sat phone. And a liferaft. And not panicking.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/trave...acific-rescue/


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[Dan McCosh]

Looks to me like the boat hit the whale, not the other way around.

[Toxophilite]

My sympathies are with the whale

[coelcanth]

i think this sort of heresy is what did it:

“The second pizza had just come out of the oven, and I was dipping a slice into some ranch dressing,”

[John B]

Evokes memories of a humpback cow and calf heading straight for our bow, diving under us..There were a few tense seconds there, the helmsman froze but turning would probably be wrong too..
I always think and often say when we meet them that 'they know what they're doing, ' but in this case obviously something else is going on. Most of the cases I've read about over the years involve a sleeping whale and true, its ship hits whale. This one seems a bit different where the whale has collided with the back of a moving boat, enough to punch the prop area into the hull. So , surfacing? side collision?

[timo4352]

Thankfully they were prepared and survived.
Just makes me have to consider how much greater your chances of survival are if you are in a life raft and out of the water than bobbing around in a life jacket.

[Breakaway]

Looks to me like the boat hit the whale, not the other way around.

In maritime collisions, both parties are usually found responsible.

Snark aside: How would you know who hit what or what hit who?

Kevin

[Paul Pless]

they lost me after reading "pizza had just come out of the oven, and I was dipping a slice into some ranch dressing". . .

who does that???

[robm]

Hey, they were half way between the Galapagos and Tahiti. Gourmet pizza might be hard to find. Anything to make whatever frozen concoction tasty is a good thing.

[hawkeye54]

Even cardboard would taste better with some ranch dressing . . . Just saying

[pez_leon]

If God wanted you to eat pizza without ranch dressing, she wouldn’t have made ranch dressing. There isn’t a food in creation that isn’t bettered by a dab of the stuff.

[Oldad]

Wow, thread drift from whale sinks boat to ranch dressing in 11 posts... and yes, ranch rules.

[JamesCaird]

Hi Guys- I have spent years chasing whales around for research purposes and have only really hit one- (going fast and noone saw it underwater). Otherwise my experience indicates that most whale species are very aware of where they are, how big they are and where you are. The unpredictable part is when you are around whales with calves. For sailboats moving relatively quickly in good wind very possible the whale does not "see" you or misjudges your speed and direction and gets startled. I have approached many whales from behind very slowly and quietly to tag. Sometimes they sleep or snooze. Different species have different reactions to threats (some dive, some come up, some slip away quickly, some want to play) That one time I hit a whale (EG) it got hit out on tail fluke by the prop of a 20 ton Cat going 20 knots. Chopped up the whale a bit but she survived many years but stalled port engine, bent prop and shaft. One Tough cookie. Almost never happens any time pizza is around. My observations.

[Figment]

I'm going to ignore the heresy and play our favorite game.... What's That Boat?



Hylas 44 maybe? I don't think the transom is right though.

[Boatsbgood]

Peterson?

[John B]

Peterson 44 is what it says in the video, and you get a look at the stern which gives it away anyway.

[darroch]

[Dan McCosh]

In maritime collisions, both parties are usually found responsible.

Snark aside: How would you know who hit what or what hit who?

Kevin

The description of the stern lifting up, plus the wound in the whale, sounds as if the keel hit the whale.

[Etdbob]

I hate Ranch, and would never allow it on any boat of mine!
My wife does occasionally sneak it into the home though, and eats it just to gross me out.

If you need to slather that goop on food to eat it, you need better food in the first place. And better goop. Ahem.

What the heck is a WhatsApp?

Indeed, the one issue the crew faced was battery power. Their Iridium Go, a satellite WiFi hotspot, was charged to only 32 percent (dropping to 18 percent before the rescue). The phone that pairs with it was at 40 percent, and the external power bank was at 25 percent.

Oh good grief, only in this day and age. Didn't they have an EPIRB? Not that it would have gotten them picked up as fast. I am glad they are OK.

So, who's for boats with positive flotation?

This winter in Florida on our 48 day cruise we hit manatee twice with the keel and a dolphin thumped our bow quite hard once.
I was surprised, I really wasn't trying to run over everything! The dolphins played about our sloop so much and so vigorously, and would slap the hull sometimes but one dived right under the bow while we sailed at a good clip and we hit so hard I wonder if we brained the silly thing.

Offshore I'd worry more about smacking shipping containers than anything else. Sure take a rudder right off.

[Breakaway]

Whatsapp is a VOIP app that allows free texting over the internet between users. Handy for travel abroad.

They did have an epirb. But their Whatsapp message garnered a response, which must be comforting, as opposed to an epirb, where you dont know if your rescuers received the message.( New epirbs DO now feature messaging).

Anyway, redundancy is almost always a good plan.

Kevin


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