Not what you want on quiet afternoon

A couple watching whales from a sailboat got a close-up view when a southern white whale soared out of the water off Cape Town and landed on their boat, snapping the mast.

This species of whale navigates by sound and has poor eyesight meaning it may have simply not heard the sailboat, which had its motor off, The New York Post reported.

Paloma Werner said “Our boat’s engine was off and so the whale just didn’t know we were there, we were just the wrong boat, in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Ms Werner and her partner, Ralph first saw the whale in the distance and spent an hour watching it. “It appeared about 120m away from our boat and then it went under the water again. Suddenly I heard my partner shout and when I looked around, I saw the huge thing breaching on to the deck. Instinctively, I took cover as the mast came crashing down. I saw my partner, Ralph, dive for cover behind the yacht’s wheel. Then the whale slid down the side of the boat and back into the water. As soon as I realised that we were unhurt, we checked to see how much damage had been done. Luckily, we weren’t taking on water so we started the engine and headed for shore. I saw the whale reappear further away. When we got back to land, I realised how lucky we were to have survived.”