A British sailor has explained the horror moment of being surrounded by killer whales that attacked the boat she was sailing off the coast of Spain.
April Boyes, 31, told This Morning about how a normal boat trip turned into a nightmare after orcas continuously rammed into the vessel for over an hour.
April was delivering the boat from the Azores to Gibraltar, which is a journey of around 1,100 nautical miles,
The sailor with five years of experience described the orcas' movements as "a bit of a headbutt."
At first, they were not worried but suddenly water reached the Engine Room.
The pod of orcas began "tearing bits off" the rudder, causing water to flood into the boat’s engine room.
The pod of orcas began "tearing bits off" the rudder, causing water to flood into the boat’s engine room.
She told the programme: "We first made a Pan-pan call, which means 'breakdown' in French when the water was just in the back and then that escalated to a mayday call at which point I was kind of going back into the boat to check other areas.
"And then we saw water in the engine room, which wasn't a very good sign."
Terrified the boat was going to sink, they took turns bailing the water out before a helicopter with an industrial pump eventually arrived.
She continued: "So while we were waiting for emergency services to arrive we took remedial action straight away... but a boat did sink the week before so that was in the back of our minds.
"I really want to push the point that, we don't know they're being aggressive. It could be play to them, we don't really know the reason why they're doing [it]."
In a video posted on her Instagram page, she said the attack began as a “seemingly unique encounter [but] ended with orcas breaking the rudder off the boat, then proceeding to tear off bits of the boat for over an hour.”
She added: “A huge hole in the hull meant we had water ingress to other parts of the boat and the engine room.”
Researchers believe an aggressive killer whale known as White Gladis is responsible for leading a pod of orcas that have been attacking boats in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Orcas, which are endangered and are a part of the dolphin family, can measure up to eight metres and weigh up to six tonnes.
