Three women rowing the Atlantic were stalked by a pod of huge killer whales that are capable of sinking whole yachts.
As captured by an underwater camera, the orcas swam right next to the tiny boat, as the athletes competed in the World’s Toughest Row.
The team, called Row With Flow, are currently closing in on the finish of the 3,000-mile odyssey, from the Canaries to Antigua.
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Clare O’Reilly from Wembury, Devon, Rosie Tong from Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, and Mel Jarman from Sydney, Australia, set off in December.
Since 2020, killer whales have been ramming yachts off Spain and Portugal, and out into the Mediterranean, causing several to sink.
Scientists believe the behaviour, usually involving a group of young males, likely started as play after a traumatic incident with a boat.
Now it has become a learned activity, with orcas biting the rudders, as reported by Need To Know.
But brave Clare, 47, was unfazed.
She recalled: “They came right up to the boat, I mean right up.
“There were two on one side and one on the other.
“They were touching the bow of the boat.
“They didn’t try to steer it off course, they were just kind of curious.
“The boat is 27ft long and they were nearly two thirds the size of it.
“Under normal circumstances, it would have been terrifying.
“Had they decided to do anything, obviously we wouldn’t have had much of a say in it, but actually they just felt really inquisitive, they were just really curious.
“Their blowholes were within touching distance.
“At first we could hear them but not see them.
“To have the three of them by the boat for a good kind of five, six minutes was incredible.”
Clare added that the team had seen other sea life, including marlin and tuna, and one of them was stung by a jellyfish “whilst she was washing her cup in the sea”.
Since starting, the women have been rowing two hours on, two hours off – leaving them with no more than 90 minutes of consecutive sleep.
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