A British family have told how they escaped a terrifying killer whale attack while sailing off Gibraltar.
Dave Duffy, 45, felt a huge whack to his 42ft yacht at 3am and found a large orca ramming his rudder.
He woke his wife Kim and asked for help to steer the 42ft yacht vessel which veered violently in the encounter.
The couple then noticed three more orcas around their boat which shook as the whales repeatedly hit it.
Their ordeal lasted around 30 minutes before the creatures swam off.
Dave, Kim and their 11-year-old son were sailing from the Caribbean when the encounter happened in the Strait of Gibraltar.
College lecturer Dave said he was aware orcas were in the vicinity, then he heard the boat “shudder”. He added: “There was this great big whack and I thought, ‘oh my God, here we go’.
“I looked at the steering wheel and it was shaking from left to right.
“As I looked over the back I could see the white markings of the whale which was pretty unnerving. Then I started hearing the blowholes of other orcas around the boat. I think we had about four around the stern.
“The boat veered quite violently because of the wind but they kept hitting the rudder and shaking the boat.
“They are intelligent creatures and were trying to disable the boat to sink us. I dragged a metal flare case in the water to try and disorientate them. That went on for five minutes and they left.
“But I started the engine up again and within a few minutes they were back.
“I turned off the engine again and after another five minutes they left. We got off very lightly. These orcas were about the same size as the yacht, so you can imagine what damage they can do.
“The fact that we got away with no damage makes it, in a way, a great experience to have had.”
Attacks by killer whales in the region have increased recently. Since 2020 there have been 750. In 2021, Brit Alan Bruce, 63, filmed an orca ramming his yacht off Spain. It is believed the attacks are a result of their food sources becoming scarcer.
Dave and Kim, 45, of Bournemouth, were inspired to sail around the Caribbean and Med after their daughter Jessica died of cancer in 2019 aged nine.
They have been away for 18 months with their son and were heading for Spain when the whales struck.
