Orca Pod Attacks British Sailors’ Boat Near Moroccan Coast

As Janet Morris, 58, a business consultant, and Stephen Bidwell, 58, a photographer, both from Cambridge, were taking a sailing course off the Moroccan coast, just 11.265 km from Tangier, on May 2, they spotted a group of orcas that began attacking the bow of their sailboat. The attack lasted 1 hour, reports The Sun. "I couldn’t believe it when I saw them, it’s extremely rare. We were easy targets. We were incredibly calm, but underneath we were saying ’Oh my God. Because everyone was calm, it was fine, but we were petrified. [...] The fact that the conditions were bad before the orcas arrived didn’t help. The boat was rocking a lot, it was hard to distinguish one cause from the others," Janet recounts.

"We all remained calm because we were observing the orcas. We all remained calm because we knew that if one of us became anxious, it would be contagious. [...] We were able to do it because the skipper was so calm. [...] Orcas like the thrill of the chase, so ideally we would have remained motionless, but that wasn’t possible because of the winds," Stephen adds. The couple gathered valuables and passports before preparing the life raft.

"The captain remained very calm and orderly, which allowed everyone to get out of it," assures Janet. She and her companion were on the second day of a week-long course aimed at accumulating sailing miles when the orcas attacked. "We took the course to gain experience, and we’ll know what to do if it happens again," adds the nearly sexagenarian.