Saturday, March 6, 2010

Follow up Questions to Penny's Interview

Penny has responded to a few additional Questions that were asked by readers of this blog. Check the "comments" below these posts for additional responses.

Sharks:

I try not to think about sharks but I shall be using a shark shield which will be attached to the kayak or boat for more information on Shark Shield see www.sharkshield.com

How long will the crossing take?

This swim has not been done before so I don’t know how long it will take to swim it; I’m working on 30-40 hours.

How will I stay awake?

Good question, I’m not sure? I've been awake for 36 hours with a one hour nap before when I did my Santa Barbara Channel swim.

I woke up at 6am, had nap at 10 before going to the boat, spent 5 hours motoring to the start, swam for 18 hours through the night, showered, changed, and then took the crew to dinner, staying up till 7pm.

It’s not something I want to train at though; I think I'd just get sick on top of my heavy work load.

There'll be plenty of mind games going on, like reminding myself that shift workers are all awake and working hard.

Also we've done some long flights from Australia in recent years, I never sleep well on planes so that is some of my practice....Hmm what else? My kids keeping me up all night when they were young.

When I swam the Alenuihaha Channel last year I think I had about nine or ten hours sleep over 5 days.

I’m sure I'll get tired and go into ‘power save’ mode during some stages of the swim.


Steven Munatones said...

Great article on one of the world's greatest living adventurers. Who is Penny's escort boat pilot? Where does he live? Why was Ka'ena Point chosen? Is that the closest point to Kauai? What time is Penny planning to start? Good luck to everyone.

My pilot is Captain Don Jones, he lives on Kauai Island.

He runs a charter fishing boat and will be in touch with the local fishermen to get as much information about the currents as possible before and during my swim. http://captaindonsfishing.com/

I’m not exactly sure of the start point. Jeff being a local would know the area better than I.

I hope to begin my swim in the morning sometime so I’m able to get a night’s sleep before the start. The exact will depend on the day we swim and what the tides are doing on that day. I’ll be taking advice from Captain Don and my crew.

Steven thank you for your huge compliment and good wishes, I sincerely hope to be still living come May!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Penny, OMG, I will be paying close attention to your swim. So much I want to ask. If you start at dawn you will be swimming through that day then all night then the next day and finishing the second night? Have you ever finished a swim in the dark?
Donna K

Penny Palfrey said...

Hi Donna,
No not yet. I imagine there won't be many lights on Kauai at night so I probably won't be able to see the Island much during my approach.
The boats usually have a good spot light on them and I will have Jeff on his paddle board to guid me.