8:55 PM Thu 11 Jan 2007 GMT
Did the whale say sorry?
A sailor, whose yacht was destroyed by a humpback whale off New Zealand, said he had got a good 'vibe' from the giant mammal and thought it was trying to say sorry, local media said on Wednesday.
Lindsay Wright was sailing his brand-new 10-metre (30-ft) trimaran, named Loose Goose, about 80 nautical miles off the west coast of North Island on Tuesday when he hit the whale, according to a report in Reuters.
Wright said he had been sleeping when he was awoken by a loud noise and rushed up on deck to find himself staring at a whale's head about a foot away.
'I got good vibes off him. I thought he was trying to say sorry mate, I didn't mean to,' Wright told New Zealand television.
He said the whale, a large male in a pod of about six humpbacks, had hit his yacht with its tail, opening a large hole in one of the boat's three hulls.
'When I first saw him I thought he had come back for the coup de grace,' Australian Associated Press quoted Wright as saying.
Wright activated a distress beacon as his yacht took on water and lost electrical power. He was winched to safety aboard a rescue helicopter about five hours later.
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