Just swell - kayaker nears port
After 62 days at sea Kiwi Scott Donaldson was expected to become the first person to kayak the Tasman solo last night.
At 7.30pm last night Donaldson was within sight of New Plymouth, having departed from Coffs Harbour, Australia, on May 2.
Hundreds of family members and supporters gathered on New Plymouth’s Nga¯motu Beach throughout the evening waiting to celebrate him completing the 2200 kilometre journey across the Tasman Sea. It was Donaldson’s second attempt at becoming the first person to successfully kayak the Tasman solo.
In 2014 Donaldson came agonisingly close to completing the trip. He’d paddled half the Tasman with an unrepairable rudder, sat through a once-in40-year storm and, when he was
80kms off the coast of New Zealand, the attempt had to be aborted.
This time around it was not smooth sailing either.
At the end of May, when Donaldson was around halfway through his solo journey, he fended off a shark attacking his rudder.
At the time, TVNZ reported Donaldson had spoken to his wife Sarah via satellite phone.
‘‘He had a 2.5 metre shark chasing him the other day trying to bite the rudder,’’ Sarah told TVNZ.
Scott would stop paddling and the shark backed off but then once he resumed paddling, the shark would chase him again.
‘‘The rudder is intact, thank goodness.’’
In mid June Donaldson had to do a loop in the middle of the ocean.
Donaldson’s team leader, Nigel Escott said at the time it was a planned move to get him out of the rough weather.
The kayaker had been successfully moving around 65kms a day and at the weekend he had been narrowing in on New Plymouth.
On Monday, Donaldson’s media liaison Freddy Foote said he had made good progress on Sunday assisted by a westerly tail wind.
‘‘He smashed out 75km yesterday,’’ Foote said.
Donaldson started paddling again at 7.30am on Monday with the aim of reaching land before the wind turned southerly at night, which would have blown him back out to sea.
‘‘He’s got a good westerly tail wind behind him and it’s full steam ahead,’’ Foote said on Monday morning. ‘‘He is in good physical shape.’’
On Friday Donaldson’s support vessel met him in the early hours and restocked him with some of his favourite foods, sausage rolls, chicken sandwiches and some peanut slabs for the final push.
Donaldson’s wife Sarah and 8-year-old son Zac had been in New Plymouth for a week anxiously awaiting his arrival.
Foote said they had been ‘‘fizzing and keen’’ to see him.