Once again ... (03.05.2011)

... Christof Wandratsch has to try the swim crossing of the Molokai Channel between the Hawaiian Islands Molokai and Oahu to get closer to his goal to be the first human to overcome the Ocean’s Seven.

Now it gets a little clearer why no swimmer has yet successfully crossed these 7 channels which are located around the globe. The current plays an important role in all these bottlenecks. Sometime it is even for ships tough to go through. Though there are many people every year who cross the English Channel for example. The good thing about that area is that a lot of information about weather and current is available. But for the Molokai Channel it is not like that. There are even not a lot of ships going around there. In the end the lacking knowledge about the conditions became a problem for Christof. But as he said he learned a lot for his next challenges. On Hawaii he had to trust local skippers who know how to navigate their boats but they do not know anything about swimming.

Christof’s plan was to start his long swim session at 3 in the morning. So the task could probably have been fulfilled successfully. But the relaxed guys from the island recommended 7am after they spend a night on the beach. At the beginning everything worked well but along the day the south wind, which worked against the current, stopped. After 9 hours in the water the skipper asked Christof if he still wanted to continue the swim as he could not come close to Oahu. So the first attempt failed.

But Christof is still motivated and convinced to finish his project within one year. The rough schedule is set and there are already plans for the Molokai Channel. At this first attempt Christof was accompanied by Robby Seeger who used to be a pro surfer. He was the camera man on the boat who documented Christof’s swim. As Robby lives on the Hawaiian Islands he offered to support the organization of the second crossing which will make it a lot easier for Christof.