Ever been hit by a whale or anything else?

[Aquah0lic]

I had a thought on this. You know the little whistles people put on the car to scare deer out of the road? Well, I was sitting at a stop light yesterday watching my rearview mirror vibrate because some kid had his stereo pumping out enough bass to split the Earth's crust when it came to me.

I know sound travels along way in water, so if you had decent sized sub-woofer on the boat it seems to me that you could cruise along playing your favorite Jimmy Buffet CD and the thump of the woofer resonating through the hull should travel great distances.

BUT, would this scare/repel creatures of the deep? Or would they be curious and want to investigate? Or would it anger them and instigate an attack?

I know the kid at the light brought out the later response from me. Luckily, I was able to curb my attack response and was just annoyed instead.

[mrohr]

Spent a week in the Everglades alone (Wilderness Waterway) on my little 900 lb.sharpie.
quite a big thump on bottom one night while anchored. Too shallow for whales but there were plenty of big alligators ,wasn't too worried about being tipped out of my unballasted sailboat, but was often concerned when my mast would touch overhanging branches and drop a snake into my little craft,then whatcha gonna do? All impenetrable mangrove swamp for100s of miles so we would have to learn to live with each other. I did have a gun BUT??
P.S. never did see any snakes but in the lower glades there are even crocs!

[SimonV]

I ran into one on my pacific crossing . I was in the cockpit reading and the only indication something was amiss was the boat instead of hobby horsing down a wave it came up. It was a humpback just shy of Tonga. It and a companion had crossed my bow. I left a good gash on its back just in front of the dorsal fin. It didn't seem to bother it and they swam around me for about 40 minutes until my heart could take no more and the camera went flat. I started the motor and they left.

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[MikeFergie]

A whale caused the crew of this cat to abandon ship before it rolled over on the way from Durban to Cape Town last year. The article I read said they were awaken by a loud bang on the boat and on running upstairs say a whale next to the boat. The presumption is that they hit it sleeping on the surface and it holed the one hull. The boat was under sail.


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[Delancey]

I like the title of this thread "ever been hit by a whale" as opposed to ever hit a whale. Persoanally no, but I had one scare the crap out of me while sailing along on a peaceful night well offshore in that sort of magic night time quiet when all of the sudden one breached less than a boat length away behind me so I think must have been very close to hitting one.

Also came very close to hitting a sunfish which was a sort of freaky encounter. I was diving the boat off the wind doing 7-7.5 knots when I saw something in the water directly ahead about three or four boat lengths ahead. I wasn't sure what, maybe garbage? A floating tarp? All I could tell was that it was greyish colored, fairly large, and right in front of the boat!

I quickly altered course watching it get closer and recognized it for what it was when it came abeam for having read about them and seen photos. Strange creatures indeed. It was basking at the surface and didn't strike me as being fast enough to get out of my way. It was also huge, my guess was about 8' or 2.5m square.

After the fact I learned they can weigh up to two tonnes which made me gulp. I could have easily missed it if I hadn't been paying attention. Mind you, this was middle of the day hundreds of miles offshore where you tend to feel a bit safer. Recommend keeping a close watch at all times.

[stocru]

Would running the echo sounder frighten off/wake up a whale ?

[Mike Banks]

Running an echo sounder does not seem to bother them--but they can hear it if you start the engine--which is the first thing I do now after almost running onto a HUGE male humpbacked whale off Gloucester Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

I had no idea there was a whale closely by, although we had watched two whales flinging a calf high into the air, it rolling over and over until it fell back into the sea. The calf was not newly born--and it must have weighed nearly half a ton--and it was apparently having the time of its life.

There was no warning, one minute I was keeping an eye on the shore with the engine running, the next a huge mound of whale came out of the sea just in front of my port ama--and as it moved forwards and its head went down into the water, the huge curving back followed it until the tail emerged.

That was the most astonishing thing of all--the size of one fluke was enough to span the distance between the prow of my port ama and to reach across the entire centre hull, my vessel being a forty two foot trimaran. The entire tail must nave been twenty feet across give or take a foot or two. Had it smashed it down on the boat--it may have done some damage. The next time I saw the whale it was well ahead of us--and soon out of sight.

[44'cruisingcat]

They don't mind getting close.

[Seman]

We hit a whale at full speed at night off the coast of Madagascar. First I thought we hit a floating tree.
Big bang and a couple of seconds later a loud moan and than I could hear water spurting.
Lucky we were on a strong traditional mono.

[JPA Cate]

We've been struck, at anchor, by an inadeptly driven sailboat, and, also at anchor, by a woman in a rowing shell. She was acting like "what's the big deal?", but then she turned white when told how much the paint job cost, and that we would be in touch if the scratch didn't buff out.

Ann

[Training Wheels]

We hit 4 sea turtles one day. They make quite a clunk! They were everywhere, wife was on the bow as lookout. We would think we were going to miss them, then they would see us and swim right in front of the boat.

[zeehag]

had one pelican slam into a light blue hulled boat we were sailing gom.... anchored in fla , manatee river anchorage.. three times same pelican bam into hull... shook his head and did it again ... was funny.no damages to bird or boat.....managed to avoid the whales on my southbound passage from san diego in my formosa despite crossing tracks with 3 different types. was glorious.

[boatman61]

Got hit in the face by a big flying fish..
Gave me a nose bleed..

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Got hit in the face by a big flying fish..
Gave me a nose bleed..

hahahahaha sorry bout the nosebleed but we are in a special club... being hit in face by flying fish is a unique experience.happened to me after we were pooped by a quartering sea. seems next sea had flying fish which slapped my face on its way across cockpit.. insult to injury here i was at 0330 wet soaked with a wet bubba da boatkat and a flying fish slap. woulda bloodied my nose but i had turned my face so fishie only got my cheek. cheeky lil devil was 8 in long and solid. laughed for half an hour.

[senormechanico]

At anchor in Desolation Sound. It was evening, not a breath of wind and no current.
All of a sudden there was a huge bang and the boat and rig shook.
I immediately checked the bilge for water and finding none, went topside to look at what hit us, figuring someone T boned us.
There was nothing to see.
Fisherman went by a few minutes later in a dinghy, so I asked him if he saw anything.
He said, "It was probably a salmon running into a school of fish".
That's when it all made sense because less than an hour before, I remarked how the water around our boat was almost solid small fish, probably herring.


That fish probably had a big headache !