Despite the terrifying experience, Dell remained focused, filming and reassuring his son while grappling with his own worry.
“When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia,” Adrian said.
After a few seconds in the water, Adrian managed to reach his father’s kayak and was quickly assisted. Despite the scare, both returned to shore uninjured.
Located about 3,000km south of Santiago, Chile’s capital, the Strait of Magellan is a major tourist attraction in Chilean Patagonia, which is known for adventure activities.
Its frigid waters pose a challenge for sailors, swimmers and explorers who attempt to cross it in different ways.
Although it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, temperatures in the region remain cool, with minimums dropping to 4 degrees Celsius and highs rarely exceeding 20 degrees Celsius.
While whale attacks on humans are extremely rare in Chilean waters, whale deaths from collisions with cargo ships have increased in recent years, and strandings have become a recurring issue in the last decade.
