whale jump

Ralph Mothes and Paloma Werner of Cape Town Sailing Academy in South Africa are old hats when it comes to expeditions on the open seas.

But there's no way they could have anticipated Sunday's wildlife encounter when they set out for a routine sail near Robben Island: A 40-ton whale leaped out of the sea and landed on the deck of their boat, the London Daily Telegraph reports. Luckily, Mothes and Werner both came away alive, as did the whale.

[More photos: The never-before-photographed slender loris]

Pictures provided by Werner show the incredible sight of the breaching whale just before impact, as well as the aftermath.

Click the image to see more photos of the whale and the mangled yacht

<A href="http://ca.news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/ss/events/sc/20100225_whales">

 

Yikes guy! Thats pretty crazy! I think someone posted about this ealier! Eitherway thanks for sharing!

Note to self: Dont tick off the whale.

 

Yes, it seems now that the photo was staged, it's a fake.

 

Apparently, there's video now too.

Video of Whale Landing on Sail Boat | Featured Videos | Comcast.net

 

why you say that?

 

There are (unsubstantiated) rumors that the photo was a fake all over the news and teh interwebs. Not sure if the video proves those rumors wrong or not seeing as the quality is kinda bad.

 

Well, the conjecture was that...what were the odds that someone in another boat just happened to snap a photo at that exact moment. The couple who owned the boat that the whale supposedly jumped on were questioned by authorities. I thought that was odd. Now, the video looks more convincing so...who knows.

 

How do you suppose the boat got so mangled up?