Three family members escaped the rapidly sinking vessel and spent the night on shore before park rangers reached them.
GUSTAVUS, Alaska — A Southeast Alaska family survived after a humpback whale struck their anchored 25-foot sailboat in Glacier Bay National Park, opening a large hole in the hull and sending the vessel underwater within about three minutes late July 29.
Tania Lewis, her husband, Eric, and their 23-year-old child, Lu, were aboard the S/V Windrush when the collision occurred near Gloomy Knob. The family escaped the boat without serious injuries, made their way about 130 yards to shore and built a driftwood fire while trying to contact rescuers. Glacier Bay National Park rangers reached them at about 6:30 a.m. the next morning, roughly seven hours after the boat sank.
Lewis, a wildlife biologist who has worked at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve since 2006, was vacationing with her family when the accident happened. The family had spent the day hiking near Reid Glacier before anchoring in a cove for the night. They had watched a humpback whale feeding nearby earlier in the evening, but Lewis and Lu said the animal appeared to have left before the family settled into the boat for the night.
Lewis and her husband were asleep at about 11:30 p.m. when Lu, who was awake reading near the bow, heard what they described as a powerful crash. Lu said the impact violently pushed the boat and water began pouring into the cabin beneath the area where their parents had been sleeping. Eric checked the bilge pump while Lewis collected two sleeping bags and a bag containing radios and other supplies. Within moments, Lewis said, the water inside the boat had risen to her thighs.
The family tried to leave in a dinghy tied alongside the sailboat, but one of its lines had broken and the smaller boat had overturned. Eric righted the dinghy, allowing Lewis and Lu to get aboard, but it began filling with water while it remained attached to the sinking Windrush. Eric freed it as the sailboat disappeared beneath the surface. The family estimated that only about three minutes passed between the collision and the sinking.
The partly flooded dinghy remained unstable as the family tried to reach shore. Eric initially swam while attempting to pull it, and Lu eventually began swimming toward the beach while carrying the family’s phone and a backpack containing emergency supplies. All three reached land shortly before midnight. They were barefoot and wearing wet, light clothing, according to Lewis. An emergency bag contained lighters, an emergency blanket and other supplies, and Lewis used pages from a paperback book to help start a fire with dry driftwood.
Lewis said Eric was shivering uncontrollably for a time and Lu was also cold, but the fire allowed the family to warm themselves. Lewis made mayday calls on personal and Park Service radios without an immediate response. She later rowed farther from the cove and was able to reach an emergency communications repeater. At about 3 a.m., the National Geographic Quest, a small cruise ship, entered the area. Lewis contacted the captain, who used a satellite phone to help make sure park officials had the family’s location.
The cause of the collision became clearer after the Windrush was recovered. A salvage crew found a large puncture in the fiberglass hull on the starboard side, and Lewis and her family later found thick, dark tissue lodged among the damaged parts of the vessel. Lewis provided samples to whale biologists, who identified the material as humpback whale skin. Biologists hoped the samples could help identify the whale involved. The animal’s condition after the collision has not been publicly confirmed.
Researchers have previously documented humpback whales colliding with stationary vessels in Alaska. A peer-reviewed study summarized by NOAA Fisheries examined 108 reported whale-vessel collisions in Alaska between 1978 and 2011. Humpbacks accounted for 86% of the documented collisions. In 15 cases, humpback whales struck anchored or drifting vessels, a pattern researchers said suggested the animals may not have detected the quiet boats. The research did not establish that such collisions were deliberate.
Lewis told Alaska’s News Source that a park whale biologist believed the whale involved in the Windrush collision may have been pursuing fish, though the precise circumstances remain uncertain. She said the boat suffered a large hole near the keel and possible damage to its rudder system. The family was consulting repair experts to determine whether the decades-old sailboat could be restored. No serious injuries to the family were reported, and the identity of the humpback whale had not been publicly confirmed as of Tuesday.
Author note: Last updated August 11, 2026.