This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
OPEN WATER HEROES


I WAS STUNG EVERY HOUR AND BY SUNSET I HAD THE TENTACLES HANGING FROM MY ARMS LIKE CURTAINS


Steven Munatones has called her: “One of the world’s greatest living adventurers,” for her determination to succeed, and this is something that has been with her since childhood. She remembers feeling fi ercely jealous at age fi ve of her sister, who at a year older was allowed to join swimming club before her. This drive was cemented at the age of 12 when she was encouraged by her gymnastics teacher to drop the sport. “He said I couldn’t do both sports, and that I would never make a swimmer,” she chuckles. “I was so angry in the car going home – I said I would show him. Twelve months later, I was on the British Junior National Team." Although she competed in the pool through her teenage years and had her 15-year-old heart set on a Channel crossing, she found other things got in the way – like emigrating to Australia, get ing married at 19 and having three children – so she didn’t manage to book in her fi rst Channel crossing until the summer of 2006. The following year she returned as the fastest Channel swimmer of 2007 and she hasn’t stopped swimming since. Her website, palfreymarathonswims.com, lists her acheivements, including the Cook Strait, Rot nest Channel, Hawaii’s Molokai Channel and a double crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar. All being well, that list would have contained a crossing of another


Hawaiian channel, the Kaieiewaho, which she at empted twice last year, but on both occasions she was stung by several fl uthers of Portuguese Man O’ War and had to be pulled from the water. “On the fi rst at empt we encountered a far higher number of them than I’d ever encountered before and I was covered in stings head to toe. I was very sick aſt er about 12 hours of swimming and had to be pulled out. On the second at empt I was stung every hour and by sunset again I was absolutely covered and had the tentacles hanging from my arms like curtains.” This second failed at empt, however, was what led to the Cayman Islands’ opportunity, as swimming guru Steven Munatones was present to assist on the swim and he realised that all that stood in the way of her and a swim of this at empt were the jellyfi sh. He recommended to Frank Flowers, organiser of the Flowers swim in the Caymans, that she could be a contender for the Bridging swim, and the rest is history.


22


Penny during her 67-mile swim


between Lit le and Grand Cayman Islands with some of her support crew


What keeps her motivated? One person who certainly does is her husband Chris, who also swims. “He makes me get out of bed in the morning because I know if I don’t he will anyway. That keeps me in the water more than I would otherwise,” she laughs. Her voice fi lls with warmth as she talks about her family: as well as husband Chris, there are her three children – Marty, Daniel and Nicole, their partners and Marty’s three-year-old son Toby. As important as swimming is to her, it clearly plays second fi ddle to this tight-knit group. In fact, marathons seem to have been a way of dealing with empty nest syndrome. “Now my children have leſt home, I fi gure it’s my time to do this. I don’t know how many marathons I’ve done since then but it’s well into the 20s and they just keep get ing longer and more challenging.” So, despite admitting that she’s still recovering from the Cayman swim, which left her with a mouth full of blisters from the salt water, she’s not resting on her laurels, but has already begun her planning and training for the next big swim, in Japan’s Tsugaru Channel this September. This swim, although – at 19.5km – much shorter than the Cayman swim, is a big one for Palfrey as it will be her sixth crossing out of the hotly competed Ocean’s Seven (see page 24). When I ask if she’s got any plans to complete the seventh – the North Channel – she answers with a coy, “Perhaps I'll give it a try sometime,” so we can be sure she’s got that in her sights. What is for defi nite is that she won’t be hanging up her mantle any time soon. “I’m not going to be able to do this forever so I’ll enjoy it now. As time moves on and I can no longer do this, there are plenty of beautiful shorter swims out there so I’ll look forward to doing those.”


Although her modest, matter-of-fact manner wouldn’t allow


you to think so, it’s tempting to say that Penny Palfrey is an example to people everywhere to take the opportunities to reclaim their childhood dreams, as well as an example for anyone who thinks grannies are all about knitting. If Penny Palfrey is anything to go by, if we put our minds to it we can all achieve truly great things. ○


Photo © Spike - Cayman Islands


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76