A pod of orcas interrupted a boat race in the Atlantic Ocean and rammed two vessels during the competition

• Orcas rammed into two boats competing in The Ocean Race on Thursday.
• Video of one of the orca encounters shows two of them intentionally bumping into the sailboat.

A pod of orcas rammed into two boats on Thursday, causing them to get off track in the middle of The Ocean Race competition. During the grueling, months-long competition, participants travel over 36,000 miles around the world in sailboats.

The Ocean Race representatives said in a statement that two of the VO65 boats involved in the race "had direct encounters with orcas" during a recent leg of the competition in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Gibraltar.

These are especially risky waters for boats right now as there have been frequent orca encounters off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. Earlier in June, a pod took the rudder off a yacht sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar.

"This was a scary moment," Team JAJO skipper Jelmer van Beek said, according to The Ocean Race.

The killer whales pushed up against the boats belonging to Team JAJO and Mirpuri Trifork Racing, The Ocean Race said.

In one instance, The Ocean Race said the pod of killer whales was "ramming into the boat and nudging or biting at the rudders."

"Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team," van Beek told The Ocean Race. "We took down the sails and slowed down the boat as quickly as possible and luckily after a few attacks they went away."

Video of orcas ramming boats during The Ocean Race

Video of the encounter with Team JAJO shows at least one of the massive creatures repeatedly ramming into the boat.

The orca then swims away from the sailboat before returning with a second killer whale. The video shows both orcas swimming nearby and seemingly intentionally bumping into their boat multiple times, causing the boat to shake.

The teams each contacted Race Control after the encounters to report that no one had been injured and that there hadn't been any damage to their boats, The Ocean Race said.

Some people have said these orca encounters may escalate over the coming months and years. But experts have told Insider in the past that these encounters are probably not attacks and are more out of fun.