Hi Ew,
that was touched upon in the post:
The HiveWhale operates during CE(S)T daytime. No cure, no pay. If the whale is out of order, unresponsive or sleeping, you will get your donation refunded instantly.
Additionally on the user interface in the site you will see a different interface for day & night. At night the donation form is hidden. But you can try it, you will get a refund.
Here you see an example of the refund in progress:
https://hiveblocks.com/tx/c402d4e3afe17b0743f393ecfb2fc690411e0e66