Ayrshire man 2 swims away from being first to complete Oceans 7 in a year
Andrew Donaldson from West Kilbride has swam 5 of the seven famous channels across the globe, breaking British & World records in the process.
A man from North Ayrshire is only two swims away from becoming the first person to complete the famous ocean seven challenge in one year.
Andrew Donaldson from West Kilbride has so far completed five of the world’s seven famous channel swims.
Last August, he completed the 33km long English Channel in a British record time of eight hours exactly. He then went on to break the British record two more times in the 34km North Channel, and the 15km Gibralter Strait, with respective times of 9hrs 14mins, and 2hrs 56mins.
While swimming the 23km Cook Strait in New Zealand this March, he also recorded a world record time of 4hrs 33mins, 50 seconds.
In July, he will go on to attempt the last two channel swims, and that would make him the first person to complete the challenge in one year.
However, during his longest swim in Hawaii’s Molokai Channel in April, Andrew swam through an unforecasted storm 10km from completing the swim, and he was hospitalised after.
"It felt like being a rag doll in a washing machine"
He’s telling Greatest Hits Radio how he finished the swim but ended up being in the water for 15 hours.
He said: “My goal has been to try do this challenge in the space of a year and break the world record for combined time of doing so, while raising funds for a mental health charity in Australia called Black Dog.
“My biggest challenge so far has been the Molokai Channel. I just got absolutely battered out there, it felt like being a rag doll in a washing machine. It was just horrendous.
“I ended up being out in the water for nearly 16 hours. I got stung multiple times by jellyfish and my throat swelled up to a stage where I couldn’t breathe. I was put on an IV drip and thankfully I lived to tell the tale.
“It was gale force winds, 2-3 metre swells, really bad surface chop and the kayakers had to be pulled out the water because it wasn’t safe for them. I was just out there in the water holding on for dear life and trying with everything I could to just get to the end.
It was a real battle, but through that time, I just thought about the reason I was doing this, I thought back to the charity and the bigger cause. When you have that it makes it a little bit more manageable to push through those challenging times.”
So far, Andrew has raised 20,000 Australian dollars, and his hoping to reach the 100k mark by the end of the year, and you can donate here.
His final swims are in the Catalina Channel on America’s west coast, and the Tsugaru Strait in Japan, with both challenges in July.