Sailing Through “Orca Alley”
Honestly, this part of our journey across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean has been the most stressful. Perhaps mostly the chronic stress of anticipation leading up to this ~50NM stretch of water, inhabited by some very friendly Orca’s who have, in the last few years, found it quite fun to play with sailboats' rudders. Orcas are pretty big and powerful whales, relative to the insignificant underwater bits on our boats. This inevitably leads to severely damaged rudders, and in extreme cases, the subsequent water-ingress can lead to sinking. Let’s just say the nearby harbor of Barbate is well versed in towing and rudder repairs.
If you are planning to traverse this now ‘treacherous’ bit of water, please do your research and make a plan. There are a lot of good resources available, including various Facebook groups, governmental websites, and even heat maps detailing the hottest areas. So far, as of this writing, it appears the best strategy (and the one we took) was to stay as close to shore as possible, specifically within the 20m contour from Cadiz to Gibraltar.
For our journey entering the Mediterranean, we sailed moderatly close to shore in the northern parts of this gulf, say from Cape St. Vincent to Cadiz. There appears to be far fewer encounters in these parts, though the odd one is reported every so often. We found Cadiz to be a wonderful stopping point with easy all-weather anchorages, perfect for waiting for a good window to Gibraltar. In our case, we wanted to transit as fast as possible, which means we wanted good winds near either beam.
We left Cadiz early morning with a nice stiff breeze from the West, allowing Pippi to do her thing, close reaching at around 10kts with a decent on-shore swell. Now this is where your research on those social groups pays off - along your 20m contour, there are various sections of fish or tuna nets. They are usually marked on the chart (and sea) with large yellow buoys. We found every section could be passed ‘inshore’, except for the nets south of Rio Del Cachon (South of Barbate).
Approaching Barbate, it is EXTREMELY tempting to ‘cut the corner’ and not go inshore. We do not advise. This area is the most heavily encountered zone, and our fears were confirmed when another sailboat just six miles ahead was attacked taking ‘the shortcut’. It was frightening for us to hear the distress call from the captain reporting an interaction with several Orcas and could no longer effectively steer his boat. Luckily, he did not report any water ingress, and rescue authorities were on the scene within 15 minutes. Interestingly, the group of playful whales decided his boat was a bit of fun, and stayed with the towboat-sailboat convoy into port, with harbor control warning the rest of the sailboats along their way.
What was our plan if we spotted the Orcas headed our way? Immediately, take the sails down (the main halyard ready for a quick drop) and reverse motor toward shallower water. From what information we have gathered, when the Orcas are playing with the rudder(s), it’s usually as the boat moves forward, leaving the aft area of the rudder easy to swim towards and ‘play’ with. However, when reversing, the Orcas are possibly deterred by the spinning propeller, thus, making it more of a challenge to ‘play’. On our Balance 526, this still leaves the daggerboards available, of which our plan was to pull them all the way out of the water using two halyards. (Our daggerboards always have about 1m of board, even when in the ‘up’ position).
After rounding our last fishnet, we turned the corner of Punta Camarinal, put up more sail, and I swear, even Pippi decided she didn’t want to be in those waters any longer than she had to and we all went like hell to Gibraltar, sailing between 12-15kts.
We are extremely happy to have transited safely, and really feel for those unlucky sailors and sailboats whom become victim to these playful creatures. We were traveling with a group of sailboats, and really felt like we were all playing a game of Russian roulette, with only luck to decide if you were going to have an interaction. Latest research indicates the behavior is not intended as malicious, but rather a group of adolescents with too much time on their hands with the abundance of tuna back and having a bit of fun. Let’s hope they grow out of this phase and we sailors can once again transit Gibraltar with you know, just all the normal things we sailors already have to worry about!
A great resource of news and information can be found here, via Noonsite:
https://www.noonsite.com/cruising-resources/orcas-and-yachts/
-Darren Seltzer