A breaching humpback whale smashed up into boat just off Hoonah earlier this month, breaking the fiberglass hull and sinking it within five minutes.

“It hit us directly underneath, bending the keel over, and started a huge leak,” said Operator, 52.

“The boat went down fairly quick,” he said.

Operator said that they’d been watching whales bubble-net feeding on July 6, but were making sure not to get too close and enjoying the flat calm water.

A lone whale that broke away from the group and began breaching nearby struck the 34-foot sloop. The impact lifted the vessel as much as 4 feet up and pushed it as much as 10 feet sideways, crunching fiberglass.

The whale initially appeared stunned, but was seen continuing to breach for the next couple of hours, he said.

Operator and his wife had time to don life-jackets but not survival suits. They did have time to get off a mayday call that was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard in Juneau.

As Operator and Wife floated at the mouth of Port Frederick at Icy Strait, the Coast Guard sent out an urgent notice to mariners.

There weren’t any other boats in sight when they went down, Operator said, but a Good Samaritan vessel, the Blue Heaven, heard the Coast Guard alert and responded.

It found them clinging to a crate that had floated free from the vessel and quickly pulled them from the water.

It’s a good thing the rescuers were able to get there quickly, said Coast Guard Petty Officer.

“Exposure time in the water is critical,” she said.

The Blue Heaven, a charter boat, took the couple into Hoonah.

“The people in Hoonah were great, they helped us with getting dried out,” Operator said.

The name of Operator’s boat: Ishmael.

Operator said they didn’t chose the name, it was on the boat when they bought it. “It’s bad luck to change a name,” he said.

Despite the unluckiness of being hit by a whale, Operator said he and wife consider themselves lucky that a combination of other factors went their way and led to their rescue.

“We lost our boat but we have our lives,” he said.

In the literary classic “Moby Dick,” from which the name “Ishmael” comes, it is the name of the narrator, not the whale.

A scene in the book in which a sperm whale attacks a whaling ship is based on a true, but extremely rare, episode.

Operator said he doubts the whale knew the sailboat was there.

“Humpbacks have always been real peaceful, graceful creatures,” he said.

“If you are out on the water a lot that sort of thing can happen,” he said.

Operator said he was interviewed by NOAA, which wanted to make sure they hadn’t been chasing whales, and environmental officials who wanted to know how much fuel was on board. There were about a dozen gallons of fuel on board, not enough to try to recover, and the wreckage sunk in deep water.

Operator and Wife had spent the last four summers touring the inside passage on the Ishmael, which they left in Hoonah over the winter. They’d just finished a five-week dry-dock overhaul, and were taking it out on a sea trial when they got hit.

Hoonah                        