Hard-fought Kilometres and Curious Wildlife in Hawke’s Bay

Progress across the outer reaches of Hawke’s Bay came slowly for Jono Ridler on 11 March, with frustrating opposing currents turning every kilometre into hard work.

But while the ocean pushed back, the marine life provided constant company. Pods of dolphins continued to visit Jono and the Swim4TheOcean team, while seabirds, including petrels and mollymawks, circled overhead and landed nearby on the water, curiously checking Jono out as he swam past. In the water he’s also dodging jellyfish and chains of transparent salps. 

The day began with a long transit for the crew, travelling about 40km out from Napier and across Hawke’s Bay to return Jono to the exact GPS point where the previous swim had finished. 

He entered the water at 7am. 

The 1,000km milestone, which had eluded him late the previous swim day, proved stubborn again. A strong opposing current slowed progress dramatically, with Jono covering just under 4km in more than two hours, well below his usual pace. 

He pushed on until the milestone finally fell. 

“It feels pretty surreal to hit a thousand kilometres,” Jono said. “That’s only been possible through doing hard things every single day, now more than 60 days into this. Letting those small wins stack up on top of each other has allowed us to get to this big one. 

“It’s really cool to look back on. I don’t want to celebrate it too much because we’ve still got a wee way to go, but it’s good to pause for a second and appreciate what we’ve done to get here.” 

With the current running against them, the team paused the swim and waited for conditions to ease. 

On-water Operations Lead Andy Tuke reported from the support vessel shortly after midday. 

“It’s a beautiful day out here – flat seas and no wind – but unfortunately the current isn’t playing ball,” he said. “Jono swam for about two and a half hours this morning and then we stopped to wait for the tide to turn. It’s been different to what the models told us this morning, so we’ll check it again shortly.” 

The current never fully swung in their favour, but it did ease enough for Jono to return to the water at 1:44pm. He completed a six-hour afternoon swim, bringing his total time in the water for the day to nearly eight and a half hours. 

By the end of the day the team had added more than 18km to the mission as they continue closing the gap to Te Kauwae-a-Māui / Cape Kidnappers on the southern side of the bay. 

Before long they will leave the wide-open waters of Hawke’s Bay behind. 

Follow Jono’s progress on the live tracker and sign the call for action at Swim4TheOcean. 

Total distance covered: 1014.64km 

Swims at a glance – 11 March 

Swim 1

Time: 2 hours 22 minutes 
Distance: 3.96km 
Average speed: 1.7km/h 

Swim 2

Time: 6 hours 
Distance: 14.22km 
Average speed: 2.47km/h