Close Encounters

Tracy Edwards, who in 1989-90 skippered the first all-female team in the Whitbread/Volvo Race, recalls numerous whale sightings that year. Edwards says a whale once followed her boat for two days in the Southern Ocean.

“It was great but it was also a little nerve-racking,” she says. “We were a gray-hulled boat, and we didn’t know quite what it thought of us.”

Arend van Bergeijk thinks he does know what the attacking whale thought of BrunelSunergy. Though running into a whale is not uncommon, especially at night, Bergeijk says it was clear the humpback was after them.

“We figured that the big one must have been the mother of some of the small ones,” Bergeijk says, “and she was sort of seeing us as an enemy.”

While there is no way to prove that theory, such experiences do prove that sailors should be on the watch for a pleasant break in the routine that can turn into a break in the boat. “It is nice to see [whales],” says Edwards, “you just pray that you don’t hit them.”

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