Orca encounter left our yacht rudderless

Fitfully sleeping in the forward cabin as we headed down the Spanish coast, a loud bang had me scrabbling to the cockpit, “Is it them?“ I asked my husband, Martyn, who was on watch. I was answered by another bang. Orcas were attacking our rudder and the wheel was spinning madly. It was pitch black and we couldn’t see anything but occasionally could hear a blow and a swish. It was terrifying.

We’d been aware of orca attacks happening all the way down the Portuguese Atlantic coast as we headed down last September. The orca reporting group on Facebook was full of encounters – from Porto to Cascais to Sines… many reports of broken rudders