Ian Jory and his wife Jo were idling in the fog Monday afternoon about two miles beyond the Palos Verdes Peninsula when a large whale slammed into the bottom of their 31-foot sailboat, lifting it briefly several feet out of the water.
The initial collision at the port (left) side of the vessel occurred at about 1 p.m., and was followed a moment later by a second collision on the starboard side, perhaps caused by the tail, or fluke, of the same whale.
"We were just sitting there, not moving, and all of a sudden there was a great big crash," Jory, a South Bay resident, said Tuesday by phone. "It lifted the left side of the boat 4-6 feet out of the water."
(The top right image shows where the whale struck the port side of the sailboat, rubbing off bottom paint. The cracks are not discernible in the photo. The blue whale image is generic.)
It remains unclear whether the whale struck the boat intentionally (doubtful) or accidentally while surfacing for air or feeding.
Both collisions left cracks in the hull, toward the bow, and because water was trickling into the boat through the cracks, Jory radioed for help.
He said a lifeguard boat and Redondo Beach Fire Department boat responded to his call, and that a lifeguard jumped into the water to inspect the damage. One of the vessels served as an escort to King Harbor in Redondo Beach.
Scott Thomas, who manages the King Harbor Marine boat-repair yard, said that aside from the cracks in the hull, bulkheads inside the sailboat were separated as result of the whale strikes.
The couple was returning from Santa Catalina Island and had stopped and anchored off Palos Verdes after the wind died and a dense fog swept over the ocean.
They pulled anchor, Jory said, when they spotted a motorboat nearby, moving slowly in an unusual pattern.
Jory started his small motor and piloted his boat over to ask if the motorboat captain needed help, but it turned out he had been watching whales.
The whale strike occurred soon after the motorboat had left, as Jory's boat was idling. "All I have is a small motor and it was in idle, and it hardly makes any noise so maybe it couldn't hear us."
He estimated the whale to measure about 50 feet.
There have been a dozen or more blue whales feeding off the Long Beach-Palos Verdes area during the past several days. There also have been fin whales. Some have been lunge-feeding at or near the surface.
Blue whales, which can reach lengths of about 100 feet and weigh 150 tons, are the largest creatures ever to have inhabited earth. Fin whales are the planet's second largest creatures.
Jory said he and his wife were fortunate not to have been injured, and hoped the same was true of the whale.
–Pete Thomas
–Note: Image showing a blue whale surface lunge feeding is generic, via Pete Thomas
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