If you’re planning a whale-watching trip in Australia, it’s best to pack your rain gear. A group of tourists off the coast of Port Macquarie in New South Wales were recently treated to a spectacular close-up encounter with a humpback whale, but it left them drenched.

When a pod of whales were spotted in the distance, tourist Tash Morton began recording the action hoping to film a leaping leviathan. However, she got a lot more than she bargained for. A humpback whale launched itself out of the water just meters from the boat, crashing back with a massive splash and drenching almost everyone on board.

According to whale watching operator Anthony Heeney, it’s not uncommon for whales in the area to approach boats. He said they’ve had them close before when they’ve interacted and come over and swum under the boat and spy hopped beside them.

Port Macquarie is renowned as a whale-watching hotspot, and regular sightings of humpbacks are the norm here as these behemoths migrate along the Australian coast. During the summer months, they can typically be found feeding in Antarctica, and in late autumn, they head north to their winter breeding and calving grounds in the tropical waters of the Pacific. There have been several whale sightings in the area in recent weeks, but none quite as dramatic as this.