51 Foot Danish Sloop goes Down Halfway to Polynesia

[Elie]

Strange enough, it seems that attaks of yachts by whales including orkas are increasing at a serious rate. once a rumor was that black anti fouling was predominant for those incidents. The theory was that orkas confused them for other cetaceans. But these predators in general become aware of their mistake sor if the boat survived the first attak, it should be left alone. Bu now many attacks are deliberate and not bicause of a mistaken identity . so what are the origin of this problem ?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Elie

Strange enough, it seems that attaks of yachts by whales including orkas are increasing at a serious rate. once a rumor was that black anti fouling was predominant for those incidents. The theory was that orkas confused them for other cetaceans. But these predators in general become aware of their mistake sor if the boat survived the first attak, it should be left alone. Bu now many attacks are deliberate and not bicause of a mistaken identity . so what are the origin of this problem ?

Plastic pollution.. the Tuna are now so full of microfibers the Orca have developed a need/craving for it.. much like elephants etc will seek out salt licks, Orca seek out plastic boats.. once they've had their nibble they are happy and leave other boats in the vicinity alone.

[jipcho]

We sail in the realm of the whales. Whales have excellent body control, and will never hit a vessel unintentionally when their paths cross with a vessel. That said, they can be curious, and will sometimes intentionally ram a vessel. We don't really know why. A friend of mine was sailing with his newlywed wife from Mexico to Hawaii, when midway through their voyage, their wooden vessel was rammed numerous times by a pod of pilot whales. Their boat sank, and they drifted for 66 days in their life raft, eventually making landfall in Costa Rica.
But, I believe these attacks are rare. More often, a vessel sailing at night will hit a sleeping whale, which sometimes causes damage to the rudder. When I sailed from Madagascar to South Africa, we saw many whales all day (and I'm sure they were out there at night, too). We were lucky, but several other boats had to be towed into Richards Bay by the NSRI (South African rescue organization) that year, due to damaged steering.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by jipcho

...
More often, a vessel sailing at night will hit a sleeping whale, which sometimes causes damage to the rudder...

Orcas don’t “sleep”, in the conventional sense, and remain conscious, alert, and mobile, when “resting”, on the surface.

”...
Sleep is a behavior characterized by a typical body posture, both eyes’ closure, raised sensory threshold, distinctive electrographic signs, and a marked decrease of motor activity. In addition, sleep is a periodically necessary behavior and therefore, in the majority of animals, it involves the whole brain and body. However, certain marine mammals and species of birds show a different sleep behavior, in which one cerebral hemisphere sleeps while the other is awake.
In dolphins, eared seals, and manatees, unihemispheric sleep allows them to have the benefits of sleep, breathing, thermoregulation, and vigilance...
... For cetaceans, unihemispheric sleep is the only way to sleep ...”

➥ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4948738/

[Don C L]

I used to think that whales were always able to “see” me until I had a minke whale surface and cross me under my bow with inches to spare. That got me thinking that maybe sonar has its limitations when at the surface.

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by jipcho

...Whales have excellent body control, and will never hit a vessel unintentionally when their paths cross with a vessel...

sorry...as somebody who has been hit by a whale (definitely not the other way around), i simply do not believe this

humans have excellent body control / eye sight yet we trip over or walk into stuff all the time. whales make mistakes too !

cheers,

[OneBoatman]

Only Molly Brown is unsinkable.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by OneBoatman

Only Molly 'Maggie' Brown is 'was' unsinkable.

Margaret Brown’s friends called her "Maggie", but the press miss-dubbed her the "Unsinkable Molly Brown". However, she only survived one maritime disaster, the “Titanic” sinking.

Violet Jessop, however, was truly unsinkable, both at sea and on land. Jessop survived four [& 1/2] disasters:

1. Shortly after being born, in 1887, to Irish parents, in Argentina, she developed tuberculosis, and wasn’t expected to live more than six months. Instead, she fought off TB, and lived to adulthood.

2. On a routine trip in 1911, the "Olympic" ran into a British warship called the HMS "Hawke". The impact severely damaged the Olympic’s hull (and below the water line), but it hobbled back to port in England, without sustaining any casualties.

3. About seven months later, Jessop was assigned to another of White Star’s ships, the "Titanic", on its maiden voyage. But, while the boat quickly sank, Jessop still had to work, charged with standing on a deck, and acting out proper safety and evacuation procedures, to non-English-speaking passengers, unable to understand the verbal orders. Jessop was among the last crew members to flee the Titanic, and after a few hours adrift in a lifeboat (while holding a baby that had been handed to her), she was among those rescued by the RMS "Carpathia".

4. When World War I broke out, the White Star Line converted its ship the "Britannic" into a hospital transport vessel. Jessop worked as a stewardess. in conjunction with the Red Cross, onboard the Britannic. In November 1916, the ship was less than an hour into a voyage, on the Aegean Sea, when an explosion of some kind [it could have been a mine, or a torpedo] led the ship to rapidly sink. Thirty people died, but Jessop survived.

4.5 She almost got killed again, during this particular ordeal ['Britannic']. Her lifeboat got stuck under the stern, and she and other passengers were nearly torn apart by the boat’s propellers. She jumped out of her lifeboat and sustained serious injuries… but she survived. And resumed her work for the White Star Line in 1920.