Michael Twigg-Smith (@mikets808) took Michael Moreau (@islandofmrmoreau) of New York on a midnight mission – to cross the 45 km Molokai Channel in Hawaii yesterday. As the sun was setting at 5:59 pm, Moreau set off from South Pāpōhaku Beach on Molokai on a relatively calm night.

During a beautiful star-filled night, Moreau took a beeline across the channel and finished on Alan Davis Beach on Oahu in 13 hours 11 minutes at 7:10 am after a gorgeous sunrise welcomed the morning to Moreau and his escort crew.

Twigg-Smith recalled, “We had favorable current all the way until the last 5 kilometers where we got sucked north towards the Makapu’u Lighthouse. 

After an hour of fighting the current to get closer to Oahu, we finally found what I call the ‘sweet water’, about 400 meters from the rugged coast below the lighthouse. When the swimmer reaches the sweet water, they basically coast right in to Alan Davis Beach on a very slight push to the south. It varies tremendously where we find it, and the end of Michael’s track shows that we were down to the wire.”

Moreau had reached out to Oceans Seven swimmer and Three Rivers Marathon Swim race director Darren Miller for some tips on swimming across the Molokai Channel. His coaching guidance obviously worked well. Miller had crossed the same channel in 2011 in the previous course record of 12 hours 12 minutes at the age of 28.

Captain Twigg-Smith completed two successful back-to-back Molokai Channel crossing with his 14 hour 21 minute escort of Anshuman Jhingran from India the day before [see here].

For more information about Moreau, visit his website www.islandofmrmoreau.com.

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