A group of young sailors have described how panic set in when a killer whale started smashing into their yacht – before they fought the huge beast off using vinegar.
The 20-year-old women, from Norway, were on board the sail boat Nova Vida passing Lisbon, Portugal, on their way to the fishing town of Sines when the killer whale attacked on September 13.
Shocking video shared with the Daily Mail shows the vessel jolting and its steering wheels spinning out of control as the orca repeatedly rammed the hull.
Elise Wurschmidt, who was on a day trip with two friends and their captain, said: ‘We turned on the engine and some minutes later, the wheel just starts to spin uncontrolled.
‘We figured something might be wrong and then on the side of the boat we could just see a huge orca.’
When the whale hit the rudder underneath the boat, the steering mechanism snapped completely in two.
‘When that broke, the rudder was completely stuck,’ Elise says. ‘We couldn’t use the emergency rudder and we couldn’t use the steering wheel at all.’
With the wheel locked into position, the young sailors could only go around in circles as the orcas continued to crash against the hull.
It was not calm on board, Elise says. But in footage from the cockpit, the crew on board seem exceptionally disciplined in looking for a solution – turning to unconventional means to ward off the attacking six-metre whales.
Elise and her friends tried to fend off the orcas attacking the boat without violence. They ran the boat’s engine and poured vinegar into the water in the hope something might work
One or two orcas attacked the Nova Vida while five or six apparently struck the Oceanview
Elise (pictured) met her friends through a sailing course. They are planning to sail the world together and are documenting their journey on Instagram
Elise Wurschmidt, Thelma Hvidsten Hem, Eva Hole Rødland, Amalie Sundnes Harjo and Lisa Strand Festervoll in their boat, the Fatuhiva, currently under repair in Germany
Elise and her four friends, all 20, have read much about orcas in preparation to circumnavigate the world together.
Over the last month, they have documented their trials and learnings with a dedicated audience on Instagram.
They met through A+ World Academy, a student exchange on a sailboat ‘where you travel around for a year and you have school at sea and you learn to sail’.
But nothing could have prepared them for this. In the moment, they reasoned that running the engine and banging on the rudder might scare off the attacking whales.
It was also the folk stories of old sailors that brought them comfort in their time of need.
Elise had heard tales of crew fending off killer whales with sand and vinegar. It might not be backed up by science, she says, but it was anything not to feel helpless.
Running the engine and pouring vinegar into the sea – ‘the cheapest one from Carrefour’, they say – they hoped for the whales to leave them alone.
‘We really don’t think that the vinegar did anything,’ Elise stressed. ‘But we just poured because it’s better than to feel helpless in the situation.
‘We do think that reversing the engine did have an effect because when you back up the rudder, the propeller sucks instead of blowing out, so maybe the whale doesn’t like that.’
The Oceanview sank after being struck by several killer whales on Saturday, September 13
The steering mechanism broke and the crew were unable to use either the wheel or the emergency wheel
People have since said they should have shot the whales with flares or underwater guns. But the compassionate young crew cared for the animals’ welfare.
‘We don’t want to hurt the orcas,’ she insisted.
It was the size of the whales that struck Elise. Earlier that week, in the Bay of Biscay, they had seen dolphins swimming nearby.
‘And every time we saw dolphins, we were scared that it actually might be orcas,’ she said.
‘But when we saw the orca, we were quite surprised by the width and length of it. It was quite huge … It’s no wonder they actually sink boats, because they’re huge animals.’
The crew were witness to the sinking of the Oceanview tourist boat, some 500 metres away.
As they tried to steady their sailboat against one, maybe two six-metre orcas, the Oceanview was being attacked by ‘five or six’.
‘I think that feels quite different with so many orcas attacking at once instead of just one or two,’ Elise said. ‘And I can’t imagine losing your boat or the fact that your boat actually sinks.’
The Oceanview sinks beneath the waves after being attacked by killer whales
The vessel was sailing along off the coast of Fonte da Telha beach in Portugal last Saturday
The group could only watch as the Oceanview sank. The crew of five were rescued and fine, they say, but it was a shock to watch the boat nearby disappear beneath the waves.
‘We called them on the emergency radio and we heard that the coast guard couldn’t come to us because the other boat was taking in so much water that they need to be prioritised.
‘So we were just paying attention to the other boat and trying to fix our steering mechanism.
‘Shortly after, maybe around 10-15 minutes, the other boat, we were trying to find it, but we could only see the mast standing up from the water, so it had completely sunken.’
The tourists on board the Oceanview were rescued. Elise says the captain spoke to the other boat and heard it was a few tourists who had rented the Oceanview, and that they were fine. The owner sounded okay.
‘He didn’t really have an emotional affection towards the boat,’ she relayed.
In the end, the crew of the Nova Vida were able to install their emergency rudder and pry it enough to get them the 10 nautical miles back to Cascais, to the north.
It was two or three hours before they could start using the steering wheel normally again, or the emergency one.
The group were off the coast of Lisbon when a pod of orcas attack
A RIB from the coast guard followed along to offer support
The Nova Vida will need a few weeks of repairs before it can sail again
A RIB from the coast guard followed along to offer support.
The Nova Vida will need a few weeks of repairs before it is ready to set sail again, but it has not deterred the crew from their quest to travel the world together.
The group set off in August from Norway and were almost immediately buffeted when their boat, Fatuhiva, struck a sand dune near Kiel, Germany.
It was while they awaited repairs that a thoughtful group of boys on the Nova Vida asked if they wanted to join them for a sail over the Bay of Biscay in the meantime.
Soon enough, they hope, the boats will be up and running again, in time for their next adventure across the Atlantic.
