Andy Donaldson Takes On the Big Waters and Little Jellyfish Across Molokai
"Update on our Aussie Scottish Perth City Swimming Club swimmer is that he is doing well [and was] taken to hospital for assessment. Smart thinking when you consider, he had the flu last week, he started his Molokai Channel [crossing] 30 hours after landing in Hawaii, swam 15 hours 50 minutes in 25.2°C water, experienced sea sickness for four hours, and then swimming into beach to finish, Andy swallowed a jellyfish. He couldn’t swallow properly when he got back on the boat after completing his solo swim...he had had an allergic reaction. So [he was given an] epinephrine injection, an IV drip, and an antihistamine injection.
It is a delight to mentor and an absolute delight to see and hear the growth physically mentally emotionally and spiritually with each [of his Oceans Seven swims."
Bill Goding reported his official time as confirmed by escort pilot was 15 hours 51 minutes on April 18th.
The road to the Oceans Seven is never easy.
Donaldson said,"I was rushed to urgent care after the swim. My throat had swollen up and my airways was blocked up. Surface chop, 20 knot winds, current, brutal swells, swimming through the night. It was a swim that seemed to have everything. It seemed like I was a rag doll thrown around. A fast crossing would have been great. But I would not have learned much. In these swims, there is so much. When you are faced with challenges, when there is adversaries, do you throw in the towel, or do you continue? For me, I am absolutely knackered. But I sit here absolutely the happiest man in Hawaii. I never gave in."
His first-person report can be seen here.
Donaldson, a fast 31-year-old originally from Scotland currently living in Perth, completed a 33.5 km crossing of the English Channel from England to France in a rare 8-hour swim in August 2022. He followed that quick crossing with a 35 km crossing of the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland in 9 hours 13 minutes the following month. Then in March 2023, he set the crossing record across the 23 km Cook Strait from South Island to North Island in New Zealand in 4 hours 33 minutes in the 14-15°C water. Prior to his Oceans Seven attempts, he won the 2021 Rottnest Channel Swim in 4 hours 4 minutes 30 seconds, the 19.7 Port to Pub Ultra Marathon, and the Palm Beach to Shelly Beach Swim in 6 hours 5 minutes as well as setting a record of 5 hours 35 minutes in the 34 km Derwent River Big Swim in Tasmania.
His next steps: the 14.4 km Strait of Gibraltar and the Catalina Channel in July.
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