Tania Lewis, a wildlife biologist who had been working in Glacier Bay National Park for decades, was travelling on the 25-foot-long ‘Windrush’ with her husband Eric and their 23-year-old daughter Lu. On 29 July 2026, the family dropped anchor in a cove near Gloomy Knob, as reported by the broadcaster KTOO reported. They had previously observed a humpback whale feeding nearby, which left the bay after a while. This makes the incident particularly relevant for recreational boaters: it was not a moving boat that was struck, but a quiet boat at anchor.
At around 11.30 pm, whilst the parents were already asleep and Lu was still reading in the bow, a massive blow struck the boat. Water poured in immediately and in great quantities. According to the family, they acted quickly: Eric checked the bilge pump, whilst Tania packed sleeping bags and the radio into a rucksack. They reportedly had no time to put on lifejackets. As they tried to escape into the dinghy, which was moored alongside, they realised that one of the two mooring lines had come loose; the dinghy had capsized. Eric righted it, and the other two climbed in. Meanwhile, the yacht was sinking and threatened to drag the dinghy down with it. Water was already pouring in. At the last moment, Eric managed to cut the remaining mooring line. Tania and Lu estimated that it took only about three minutes from the moment the yacht was struck until it sank completely.
The two women began bailing out the water, whilst Eric tried to pull the boat ashore whilst swimming. However, the dinghy was still full of water and capsized again when Eric tried to climb into it. When the shipwrecked couple righted the boat once more, there was apparently so little water left in it that they were able to row ashore. Meanwhile, their daughter Lu had swum ashore.
An emergency can occur at any time, not just in bad weather. Anyone moored at night should keep lifejackets within easy reach and store a waterproof emergency bag in such a way that it can be accessed immediately, even if the boat takes on water. The BOOTE overview on Emergency transmitters on board.
A night by the campfire, then the captain of a cruise ship arrived
All three reached the shore around midnight, soaked to the skin and shivering in their thin nightclothes. Using an emergency kit they’d brought with them – containing a lighter, a thermal blanket and a paperback book – they lit a campfire on the beach using driftwood and huddled together under the thermal blanket to keep warm. BOOTE magazine also describes, through a hands-on experiment, just how quickly the cold can become an additional risk following a boat accident. A night in the life raft.
Several attempts to send a Mayday signal via the handheld radio initially went unanswered; it was only when Tania got back into the dinghy and rowed out of the bay that she gained a signal via a repeater and managed to contact the national park’s emergency centre. As all three had now warmed up, she declined a helicopter rescue.
At around 3 o’clock, the cruise ship *National Geographic Quest* approached, and its captain offered assistance. However, as the sunken mast posed an obstacle to the large ship in the shallow bay, the family decided against a rescue operation and instead had their position relayed to the rangers via the cruise ship’s satellite phone. At 6.30 am, the Park Service picked up the family.
When the wreck was recovered the following weekend, a huge hole was found in the hull on the starboard side – large enough to crawl through – along with shreds of black, leathery skin. Tania Lewis’s colleagues confirmed, based on the samples, that it was humpback whale skin. In their assessment, the collision is likely to have been relatively minor for the whale itself.
Would an active echo sounder have helped?
Looking back, Tania Lewis sees a possible mistake: she should have left the echo sounder switched on overnight. According to her, whilst whales cannot hear the actual sonar frequency of an echo sounder, they can hear harmonics within the audible range. Many skippers switch off the echo sounder at night to save electricity, particularly when the boat is securely at anchor. The ‘Windrush’ incident may therefore be a reason to reconsider this practice in known whale habitats.
According to the family, it was also customary, when whales were sighted nearby whilst the engine was not running, to tap against the hull to alert the animals to the boat’s presence. The night before, this method had worked when two humpback whales swam past close to the boat. On the night of the accident itself, however, there was no warning whatsoever – no spout, no visible sign – before the impact occurred.
Why quiet boats can pose a risk to whales
According to scientific data, the fact that it is, of all things, moored or drifting boats that are struck is no coincidence. A Study on 108 reported whale-boat collisions in Alaska between 1978 and 2011 shows that, in 15 cases, humpback whales collided with boats at anchor or adrift, presumably because the animals had failed to detect them acoustically. Humpback whales were involved in 86 per cent of the cases analysed, with small boats under 15 metres in length being the most frequently affected.
Unlike the orca incidents that have been reported time and again over the past few years – which are more often interpreted as deliberate attacks on the rudder and keel – the Alaska incident is regarded as a classic case of mistaken identity: to a whale, a quiet sailing boat is acoustically almost indistinguishable from the sound of ordinary waves. Studies also show that this is the case with fast offshore racing yachts, that collisions occur even at low speeds, partly because sleeping animals find it difficult to distinguish the background noise of a boat from other ocean sounds.
Tania Lewis said that, with hindsight, the family regretted never having discussed in detail beforehand what to do in an emergency. Her conclusion: the emergency kit they had brought with them – containing a thermal blanket, a lighter and a walkie-talkie – ultimately made all the difference during their night on the beach.
The most important lesson for skippers isn’t spectacular, but it is practical: before going to bed, you should know exactly where the lifejackets, radio, knife, torch and emergency kit are kept, and who is responsible for what in an emergency. If the boat suddenly takes on water, there are often only a few minutes to act.
What do you do with the depth sounder at night whilst at anchor: switch it off to save battery power?
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital