PORT ANGELES — A Seattle man became the eighth person to complete a swim across the Strait of Juan de Fuca without a wetsuit on Sunday.
Andrew Malinak, a 28-year-old civil engineer from Seattle, wore only a neon pink bathing suit and a bright orange swim cap and took just under 7 hours to swim 12 miles across the 54 degree waters of the Strait in his second attempt to conquer the waterway.
Malinak began his swim at Beechy Head west of Victoria in East Sooke Park at the southern tip of Vancouver Island at 8:12 a.m. Sunday in choppy waters.
At roughly 3:11 p.m., he strode ashore through gentle waves on the beach just east of the Elwha River mouth west of Port Angeles.
He completed the swim in 6 hours, 59 minutes and 48 seconds.
“It felt fantastic. It was quite a relief,” Malinak said of the moment his feet touched the beach sand.
He said the thought of not making the swim in his last attempt and his decision to not make a third try helped him keep going Sunday.
The trip started at John Wayne Marina in Sequim, and the group was delayed for nearly two hours because of rough weather conditions and complications in the international border crossing to get to the Canadian starting point.
“It started off a bit frightening. The winds on the Canadian side were bad,” Malinak said.
However, while his support boat spent some time at “alarming angles,” the water was relatively calm, Malinak said.
His boat contained a support crew with other distance swimmers, Howie Ruddell of Port Angeles, Scott Lautman and Erika Norris of Seattle, and Melissa Nordquist of Gig Harbor, each of whom swam with him for part of the trip.
Ruddell and Norris were swimming with Malinak when he reached the beach.
The support swimmers also swam without wetsuits.
“Having a fresh and friendly face pushes you along. It’s useful,” Malinak said.
Pushing harder means keeping warmer, and long-distance swimmers get cold if they slow down, he said.
At one point, Malinak was also joined by two curious porpoises, but Malinak never saw them because they were swimming in his blind spot.
“The water is extremely clear, but endlessly deep. All I saw were some little jellies and some fronds of kelp,” he said.
An experienced open-water swimmer, Malinak follows the rules of the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association.
The association is a regulatory organization for long-distance swimming achievements and certifies swims according to a strict list of equipment use, including a ban on wet suits and physical contact with a boat or other swimmers.
Malinak’s last attempt to swim the strait was in July 2013.
With less than a mile to go, he was forced to give up when he was drawn off course by currents and showed early signs of hypothermia.
In his first attempt, he swam for 6 hours, 10 minutes before he voluntarily climbed into a support boat for a ride to Port Angeles.
In what he has named the “Summer of Bert” — named for Bert Thomas, the first person to swim across the Strait — Malinak has achieved several regional swimming feats.
In June the New York state native became the second person to swim from Tacoma to West Seattle, and in early August he swam the circumference of Bainbridge Island.
Now Malinak is looking forward to an autumn of something completely different.
“I want to do anything that isn’t swimming. Maybe sailing or sit on a couch,” he said.
He said that at this time he has no plans for additional swimming challenges next summer, but that could change.
“After about four or five months, you walk by a map and see something and say, ‘I could swim that,’” he said.
Certified open-water swims of the Strait are rare, and only seven people have succeeded under open-water swim rules.
Bert Thomas, a 29-year-old former Marine combat swimmer who fought in World War II, was the first person in recorded history to swim across the Strait, on July 8, 1955.
He completed the 18.3-mile crossing from Ediz Hook to Victoria without a wet suit in just over 11 hours.
Other swimmers who have crossed the Strait under swimming association rules were:
■ Cliff Lumsdon, Amy Hiland, Ben Laughren and Marilyn Bell — August 1956.
■ Vicki Keith — August 1989.
■ Fin Donnelly — August 1994.
In September 2014, Ken Goodman, Orlando Boleda and Paul Webber swam the Strait wearing wet suits.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
