According to the National Maritime Authority, the incident took place about seven kilometres southwest of Cabo Espichel.

The help provided by the authorities followed an alert received at 11:10pm on Monday, via the Lisbon Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC Lisboa), which led to the referral of the Cascais Lifeguard Station.

Upon arrival at the site, the aforementioned operators found that the two crew members were "physically fine". Following the occurrence, the sailboat was towed to Cascais marina, "for reasons of safety for navigation".

The Cascais Maritime Police took care of the occurrence.

This is not the first reported case of orcas interacting with vessels recently. Last Tuesday, seven crew members of a pleasure craft sailing off Sesimbra had to be rescued after being 'attacked' by a group of five orcas.