Humpback whale collides with anchored sailboat in Glacier Bay National Park, family flee as it sinks

A family having a whale of a time on a sailing trip have wound up stranded in the water after a mammal sank their anchored boat.

On July 29, Tania Lewis, her husband Eric, and their 23-year-old, Lu, were travelling through Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park when the family holiday became a nightmare.

The family were aboard their 7.6 metre S/V Windrush sailing boat.

That day, Ms Lewis told news outlet KTOO, it was sunny and they had been hiking near Reid Glacier before deciding to anchor in a nearby cove for the night.

While anchored, they watched a humpback whale feeding before it left the cove and the parents called it a night.

“Then, at about 11:30 — we’re estimating — there was a gigantic thud, bang, loud crash sound, and the boat was pushed violently,” Lu said.

“I saw that water was coming into the boat very fast, about from underneath where they were sleeping.”

Ms Lewis said that when they realised the boat was sinking they jumped into action.

Her husband checked the bilge pump was functioning and removing unwanted water, and she quickly packed a dry bag, but said they did not have time to find life jackets.

“Then I grabbed our radio bag, I put that in there,” she said.

“By then I was, like, thigh-deep in water.”

The family tried evacuating the boat via a dinghy which also “started flooding with water” while tied to the doomed sailboat.

“The boat basically disappeared,” she said, adding that it went under within three minutes.

Eric tried swimming to drag the dinghy to shore, a difficult task because it was full of water. They were soon able to drain some of the water and row the remainder of the distance.

Wet, they arrived on shore and started a fire before attempting to make may day calls on radios from the dry bag.

“Eric was shivering uncontrollably at that point,” Ms Lewis said.

“Lu was shivering, but not uncontrollably, and they huddled under the emergency blanket with those drenched sleeping bags around them.”

Ms Lewis said it took several attempts before her family received a response on the radio, which came about 3am from a small cruise ship passing by.

They were picked up at 6.30am by the Park Service.

Days later, they went back to tow the boat to shore and try determine what happened.

A huge puncture had been made in the hull which was large enough for a human to crawl through.

“I was helping Eric muck out the rest of the stuff from inside, and he had this handful of this black, rubbery, thick stuff,” Ms Lewis said.

“He was like, ‘What is this? It stinks!’ And it was these huge chunks of whale skin.”

Scientists confirmed that the skin was from a humpback whale, which likely would not have been injured from the collision with the boat.

Ms Lewis has visited the national park for decades as part of her work as a wildlife biologist.

“There have been a couple of close calls in Glacier Bay that I just learned about with whales hitting boats in the night, but they never sank them or did major damage,” she told Alaska’s News Source.

The family launched a GoFundMe to help with the recovery costs.

In eight days, it has raised more than $US25,000 ($AU35,411).

The family provided an update once the fundraising goal of $US23,000 ($A32,578) was reached, saying they were grateful for donors’ generosity but did not know if they would proceed with repairs of the damaged boat.

“As far as repairing the boat, we’re not sure at this point,” Ms Lewis wrote.

“In addition to the huge hole in the hull, the whale may have jacked the whole the rudder system too. We shall see.

“We are all doing well, challenged but gradually succeeding at returning to normalcy.

“With all of your support this highly improbable event will not be a big hit financially as well.”