A whale sinks a boat in the Pacific.
The crew manages to get to safety at the last second.
The owner is still trying to save his boat, but has no chance.
Galápagos – It sounds like something out of a Herman Melville or Daniel Defoe bestseller, but it really happened.
A sailboat crashed into a whale in the middle of the Pacific.
Then the "Raindancer" (in German: Regentänzer) went under.
The German Simon Fischer was also on board the sailor.
Pacific Ocean disaster: Whale sinks boat while crew eats pizza
The boat sank in the Pacific within 20 minutes, says Simon Fischer in a video on Instagram.
The crew was just eating lunch when the whale hit their sailboat from below.
"We just ate pizza, after two minutes we were ankle-deep in the water, ten minutes later we had to get off the boat," reports Fischer in his video message two days after the accident.
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Boat accident in the Pacific: A crew is in distress after colliding with a whale.
© Fotomontag: Imago/Screenshot Instagram/Rick Rodrigues
After around eight hours at sea, the shipwrecked were rescued by another sailing team.
"I'm just happy to be able to send this message right now," said Fischer in his video message.
He's still scared of being out on the ocean, the sailor continued.
He just lacks confidence.
It all happened so quickly.
"The water came through the floor panels 30 seconds after the hit," wrote the owner of the "Raindancer", Rick Rodriguez, who was also on board, on Instagram.
A total of four people were on board the ship when the accident happened last week.
Rodriguez tried to save his boat with snorkeling equipment and a tarpaulin, but it was too damaged, according to the
Washington Post
.
Clash with whale: Moby Dick in reality
The crew was en route from the Galapagos Islands to French Polynesia.
The fictional adventure story of "Moby Dick" took place in exactly the same area.
In the novel, author Herman Melville also tells of a crossing on this route.
The crew's sailing boat is also capsized by a whale in the story.
The crew of the "Raindancer"
Brateanu, 25, from Newcastle, England,
Litz, 32, from Comox, British Columbia
Simon Fischer, 25, from Marsberg, Germany
Rick Rodriguez, 31 from Tavernier, Florida, USA
There have been around 1,200 reports of such clashes since 2007, a spokeswoman for the International Whaling Commission told the
Washington Post
.
However, the damage that occurs is usually much less, as the US Coast Guard confirmed to the newspaper.
The last time a crew had to be rescued following a whale collision was in 2009, it said.
Check out this post on Instagram
A post shared by Simon Fischer (@cold_fisch)
The whale that hit the boat is said to have been a Bryde's whale.
The crew members reported to several newspapers that they had seen at least one whale.
The boat's owner even claims to have seen the whale injured in the collision, he told The
Washington Post
.
Rescue on the high seas: The crew is picked up after only eight hours
Luckily, a catamaran was only about 35 miles away from the shipwrecked people.
As a result, the four people were quickly rescued from their life raft.
The shipwrecked crew lost all their personal belongings in the accident, as Fischer says in a video.
Even today, he still doesn't think that whales are evil animals.
(Lucas Maier)
In addition to whales, sharks are also up to mischief in the world's oceans, and researchers have now even been able to film the largest of them.
List of rubrics: © Fotomontag: Imago/Screenshot Instagram/Rick Rodrigues