Alberto Donskoy, 63, from Givat Olga, a local community in northern Israel, is a dedicated sailor and experienced fisherman who set out on a routine kayaking trip on Monday from Sdot Yam toward Givat Olga and back. But shortly into his return journey, the sea turned treacherous. Around 10:30, as he paddled opposite the Hadera power plant, a towering ten-foot wave capsized his motorized kayak.
Thrown violently into the water, Donskoy found himself about 16 feet from his overturned kayak. Fighting the powerful currents, he swam back with all his might, fully aware that without the kayak, survival was unlikely. Reaching it, he managed to briefly activate his waterlogged mobile phone, urgently calling his friend: "I am in a major jam, I am going to die. I am opposite the Hadera power plant"—before the device succumbed to salty water and shut down.
Donskoy's rescue
Grasping the severity of the situation, his friend contacted a connection at the Israel Ports and Shipping Authority. The call quickly made its way to Ronen Abramov, Director of Organization and Administration at the Authority, who immediately alerted the on-duty pilot at Hadera port, Eyal Elgarbeli.
Hadera Port, primarily serving the Israel Electric Corporation for coal unloading, is under the management of the Shipping Authority. Elgarbeli swiftly mobilized the emergency team and set out in the pilot boat, navigating the hostile seas toward the last known location of the distress call. After nearly an hour of relentless searching in dire conditions, Elgarbeli finally spotted the kayak, floating about 1,640 feet from the coal pier.
For hours that felt like an eternity, Donskoy clung to his overturned kayak, battling waves that threatened to hurl him against the breakwater rocks. "The waves were catastrophic. I swallowed a lot of water. I was staring death in the eye," Donskoy later recounted.
Stranded in the stormy waters for about five hours, Donskoy was helpless and surrounded by menacing jellyfish. At one harrowing point, a shark circled him before swimming away. Talk about staring death in the eye! The ship's crew executed a careful and precise rescue operation, retrieving Donskoy and his kayak, and providing immediate medical assistance.
Donskoy expressed profound gratitude to his rescuers. "When I saw your ship, I said, 'God loves me,'" he shared. The critical phone call he managed to make before his phone died, his friend's swift action to contact the Shipping Authority, the urgent coordination from the Authority’s director, and the unwavering determination of port pilot Elgarbeli, who braved the stormy seas without pause, were all crucial to his rescue. The Shipping Authority emphasized that without Donskoy's desperate call, he might have been lost to the sea.
The following day, Alberto went to the synagogue to offer a prayer of gratitude. "Will I go back to sailing? I'm traumatized now. When you're alone at sea for hours, you see death, you're scared. When I saw the shark, I thought to myself, 'That's all I need now.' Time passed slowly, but they saved me from death. God apparently loves me."