Kirsty Moore and her husband were kayaking in the Sound of Kerrera in the Scottish Inner Hebrides on June 26, when they spotted a humpback whale swimming nearby. Moore was able to capture cell phone video of the whale leaping close to their kayaks.

In a post to Facebook, Moore said she and her husband Alan were in the water when they spotted the mammal in the distance. The pair decided to get a closer look and paddled in the whale’s direction, “Next thing we know this big bugger is swimming underneath us!!!” she wrote.

After the encounter, which Moore described as both frightening and amazing, the couple “paddled like demons” to the shore. Credit: Kirsty Moore via Storyful