Townsville’s Penny Palfrey a record-breaking super fish

March 17th, 2009[SinglePic not found]

TOWNSVILLE’S queen of the water Penny Palfrey can tick off another box on her list of milestone swims after crossing Hawaii’s Alenuihaha Channel in record time. 

Spending 14hrs 51 mins in the water, Palfrey swam from Big Island to Maui.

Covering somewhere between 70 and 75km of rough seas, Palfrey became the first female to complete the crossing, breaking the previous record of 21hrs set by Harry Huffaker in April, 1970.

Amazingly, Palfrey performed the feat with no rest after the long flight there as she discovered on arrival that weather conditions were favourable and was advised to  begin swimming immediately. Palfrey’s husband Chris said they quickly packed their gear and caught a shuttle flight to Kona.

 ”From there, it was a taxi up to Kawaihae where we met our boat which had motored across from Maui,” Chris Palfrey said.

“After a few hours trying to sleep, we upped anchor at 1.30am and motored up to Upolo Point (the northernmost tip of the Big Island) for the start.

“On our way, the breeze and seas steadily increased, a sign of things to come. There was wind and whitecaps when we started at 3.07am and I think everyone was a bit apprehensive.

“The breeze was about 15-knots at the start, but the skipper was hoping it would ease off around sunrise. Everything was challenging for those first 31/2 hours of darkness and feeding Penny every half-hour was difficult.”

At halfway the wind blew up into the forecast of 25-34 knots and the super swimmer was beginning to feel soreness in her shoulders.

But there was no pulling out for the 43-year-old who powered on, maintaining her trademark of 80 strokes per minute.

“There was no thought of pulling her out at this point,” Chris Palfrey said.

But the weather continued to worsen. With the swell reaching 4m, the boat began to be pushed sideways, adding distance to the swim.

Chris Palfrey said they lost sight of his wife many times.

“She was getting hurled around on the crests of the bigger waves, but to her credit she kept pushing along.”

At the 11-hour mark, the skipper made the decision Penny would attempt to land at the Lighthouse at La Perouse Bay, some 27-29km eastward from her planned landing point.

Chris Palfrey said his wife was clearly suffering from the conditions.

“She said to us she was hoping to swim to Maui and not around it,” Chris Palfrey said.

“On top of everything else the water was about 22.5 degrees Celsius. But even though she was really sore and cold, she still managed to complete the crossing.”

Penny Palfrey said she’d never swum in water that rough before.

“I thought they were going to pull the swim in those first three hours,” she said.

“The waves came from every direction, they were huge.”

Her mental strength saw her through to the end, but she admitted she pulled up incredibly sore and ill from the effort.

“My right lung felt like it was huge and my left rib cage was so tender,” she said