Whale of a Tale

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

(Note:  Today's posting is dedicated to Cristian Lund Duchylard, my favorite Chilean.)

This story has been all over the news the past few days, but it is so unique that I wanted to preserve it in The Ramble as well.

Last Saturday Dell Simancas and his 24-year-old son, Adrian, who live in the Patagonia region of southern Chile, headed to ocean for a day of kayaking along the infamous and often icy Straits of Magellan.  It is currently summer in Chile, but the sea water at the southern tip of the country is still frigid with air temperatures ranging from the thirties to the sixties - Fahrenheit.

The men were in wet suits and paddling in their individual inflated kayaks, and Dell had a camera and was filming his son as he maneuvered his craft in the waters of the Strait.  Neither man had any inkling that something horrific was about to befall them.  As Adrian was paddling just a few feet away from his father, a large humpback whale emerged from the water just behind the younger man and closed his mouth around the man and his kayak and dove back into the water before releasing the his captive and the kayak moments later.  

"Stay calm!  Stay calm!"  The father yelled as his son swam to get back to his kayak.  The parent kept his camera filming throughout the bizarre and terrifying ordeal.

The son said later that as he swam for the kayak was worried that the whale would hurt his father, or that he, Adrian, would die of hypothermia.  He said that while he was in the mouth of the whale he felt a slimy texture rubbing against his own skin and was enveloped in darkness.   After the pair were safely back on shore the young man who had been trapped inside of the whale's mouth told the Associated Press, "I thought I was dead.  I thought that it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me."

In its coverage of the incident, CBS News noted a similar incident that occurred four years ago off of the coast of Avila, California, when two women, who were also kayaking, were  briefly captured in the mouth of a humpback whale that submerged with them in its mouth.   The women were wearing life vests, and when the whale opened its mouth underwater, they floated free and popped to the surface of the ocean.

The moral of these stories is obvious: if you are ever enjoying a day in the ocean and are suddenly scooped up by a whale, stay calm.  It will be alright.

Yeah, right.

Adrian, you have been spit out by a whale.  Make the most of your second chance in life!