One yacht owner had a terrifying ordeal at sea when a pod of killer whales attacked and ended up sinking his boat to the bottom of the ocean. The orcas sank the $128,680 vessel.
59-year-old Robert Powell described a horrific two-hour attack via New York Post. The incident happened on Wednesday in the Mediterranean Sea. Powell had been just a day into his 10 day trip to Greece when he encountered killer whales.
"To me, they were not playing at all, they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew the weak points of the boat, and they knew how to sink it," Powel said. To make matters worse, it was also his birthday celebration. "Their sole intention was to sink the boat, and that was it."
According to Powell, five killer whales circled the yacht. They took turns smashing into the vessel like a pack of wolves. At first, he thought it was a rock.
"Whilst I was looking around the boat to see if I could see anything — I was doing about 5 to 6 knots — it got hit again," Powell recalled. "On the second hit, I looked over the back of the boat, and I could see the dark shape of a killer whale in the water." The orcas attacked the rudder of the boat stranding them at sea.
Killer Whales Attack Yacht
They then separated and focused on different parts of the boat. "They were circling. It was like watching wolves hunt," Powell said. "They were taking it in turns to come in — sometimes two would come in at the same time and hit it. So obviously pretty terrifying."
After an hour and half, the hull of the boat began to split from the attack. Water gushed into the main area of the yacht. Though they radioed for help, it took two hours for crews to reach them. Fortunately, they managed to vacate the yacht just minutes before it sank. Powell said he tried everything from dropping firecrackers over board to shutting down the engine to stop the attack.
"It was a very long attack, and it was really the violence of the attack that surprised me," he said. "I have a feeling that this group are boat sinkers — I think they knew what they were doing, I'm sure of it."
It's not the first time killer whales have attacked and sank boats.
"It's only a matter of time before someone shoots one of these killer whales," Powell ominously warned. "The fight between man and beast is going to get worse. Luckily none of us were in the water or got hurt. And it's a lottery as to whether they hit you or not."
