40 Ton Whale Leaps Onto Sailboat off Cape Town

A couple sailing off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa got the whale watching experience of a life time when a 40 ton whale breached out of the water, landing on their 33 ft sailboat.

Ralph Mothes, 59, and Paloma Werner, 50, watched in shock as the 40 ton whale crashed onto their sailboat. Miss Werner said: “It really was quite incredible but very scary. The whale was about the same size as the boat. We’d spotted it about 100 metres away and thought that was the end of it. Then suddenly it was right up beside us. I assumed it would go underneath the boat but instead it sprang out of the sea. We were very lucky to get through it, as the sheer weight of the thing was huge. There were bits of skin and blubber left behind, and the mast was wrecked. It brought down the rigging too. Thank goodness the hull was made of steel and not fibreglass or we could have been ruined.”

The incident would only have been just a ‘whale of a tale’ if not for a passing boat who captured the whole incident on camera. When these shots first appeared they were accused of being photo shopped but video has since been released showing the entire incident.

Whale watching is very popular this time of the year off the Cape Town Peninsula, as the whales come in to breed between June to November.

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