"An experienced British yachtsman and businessman has recalled a vicious attack by a pod of orca that left his boat with £15,000 of damage. In an interview with the Daily Mail, the 71-year-old has exclusively recalled his '45 minutes of turmoil' during an orca attack in the Strait of Gibraltar in June 2024. Mr Hegan says his Swan 391 sailboat was pounded by a 'pod' of four killer whales, also known as orcas, while travelling eastwards towards the famous Strait."
"It was June 20 last year that the yachtsman and his family set sail from Cascais, near Lisbon on the Portuguese coast, bound for Gibraltar. The day they set off, they'd already heard of an orca attack about 30 miles south of Lisbon, where a catamaran had lost one of its rudders. 'We were fairly reassured by this as we were already south of the position and felt the orca pod was probably further north,' he told the Daily Mail."
A 71-year-old British yachtsman and businessman experienced a 45-minute coordinated attack by a pod of four orca in the Strait of Gibraltar in June 2024, causing £15,000 damage to his Swan 391 sailboat. The repeated, surreal assault left the four-person crew fearing their 40-foot vessel might sink. The attack occurred while sailing from Cascais toward Gibraltar and followed a nearby Mayday report of another orca incident south of Lisbon. Orca collisions and attacks frequently occur off the coasts of Spain and Portugal, particularly near the Strait of Gibraltar and the Bay of Biscay. The yachtsman believes authorities are downplaying incident numbers to protect tourism.
Read at Mail Online
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]