A Monroe man and his son say they were surprised to encounter a family of whales on their trip of a lifetime in the Atlantic Ocean.

Sixty-two-year-old Greg Collins and his son Elliot were competing in an event called the World's Toughest Row.

The event is a 3,000-mile international race west from San Sebastian de la Gomera in the Canary Islands to English Harbour in Antigua. For 45 days last December, Collins and his crew rowed in excess of 1.5 million oar strokes during the race.

Near the end of their trip, a family of whales got curious about them and came up to the surface to check them out. You can imagine their surprise, not knowing if their small boat would capsize.

But it did not, and this video — the first time being seen on American television — has become the talk of British TV.

"Just this massive group of these 30-foot whales appearing like ten meters away from us, you know, breaching through the ocean while we sat there for 30 days or whatever not seeing anything was pretty surreal," said Elliot Collins from Monroe.

Their team, Get Busy Rowing, completed the race in 45 days, nine hours, and 23 minutes, coming in 30th out of 43 boats. But winning was never the goal; it was completing the journey.