LIHU‘E — Getting into the summer tourist months, traveling interisland can become more hazardous and take more time than anticipated. Though while a flight from O‘ahu to Kaua‘i will still take about 30 to 40 minutes, Penny Palfrey’s journey will
LIHU‘E — Getting into the summer tourist months, traveling interisland can become more hazardous and take more time than anticipated. Though while a flight from O‘ahu to Kaua‘i will still take about 30 to 40 minutes, Penny Palfrey’s journey will likely be somewhere in the 30 to 40-hour range.
Palfrey, a 47-year-old grandmother from Australia, is scheduled to get into the water this morning to swim the Kaieiewaho Channel, a 72-mile journey from Ka‘ena Point to Kaua‘i’s south shore. This is the only Hawaiian island channel that has never been completed by a swimmer.
Though she will have a boat following her efforts, Palfrey’s swim will be nonstop and physically unaided. Guiding her journey will be Jeff Kozlovich, an O‘ahu Ocean Safety lifeguard and EMT, atop his paddleboard. Kozlovich, 50, is a personal trainer specializing in “adventure-based fitness training.”
He said that if the swim does finish in the time period they anticipate, it would be the longest unaided, nonstop ocean swim in history.
“Penny will not touch the paddleboard or get on the boat,” he said. “To be considered for the record books, she can not. I’m there to guide and for safety. I will be taking breaks, getting on the boat and letting friend, fellow lifeguard and accomplished distance swimmer, Bill Goding, help with the paddling.
“This is Penny’s adventure and her chance for the world record, not mine,” he added.
Kozlovich, who sets long-distance fitness tasks for himself, has experience assisting in similar scenarios.
“I have escorted swimmers before across other Hawaiian channels, but never to Kaua‘i,” he said.
Palfrey has experience in long, ocean swims, having completed the Alenuihaha and Maui Channels last year, becoming the first woman to swim the former. She was also the first person to swim from San Miguel Island to California in Sept. 2008, then the first woman to make it from Santa Barbara Island to Point Vicente, Calif.
She and Kozlovich will be forming a strong partnership to make this journey, which had been thought of as an impossibility. Such a team needs plenty of trust and experience, though these two have not worked together prior to this attempt.
“I only heard about Penny last year when she swam from the Big Island to Maui,” he said. “We emailed and I only met her a few days ago.”
When she is in full training mode, Palfrey said she swims roughly 65 to 70 kilometers (40 to 45 miles) per week.
Once in the water, the mental strains can be just as daunting as the physical. Penny seems somewhat matter-of-fact when it comes to what goes through her mind during a swim.
“It’s a bit like driving a car,” she said in a March interview with Kozlovich. “My mind is always on what I’m doing, but also wanders to all sorts of things… I like to watch the crew and see them watching me. I think about my stroke, the people who have helped to get me to where I am, the people who have supported me and sent me messages.
“I think about the weather, the swell, the sea life that I see, the night swimming and the phosphorescence below, it’s like being in the middle of space,” she added. “I look at anything that’s happening around me, other boats, land, my feeds… swim, swim, swim.”
While on her journey, Penny’s plan is to refuel with Endura carbohydrate replacement drinks and gels, which will be passed to her by the crew in a drink bottle from a rope.
Kozlovich is participating to raise money for the Blue Planet Run Foundation, an organization created to provide access to safe drinking water to all those in need around the world.
The support team aboard the boat will be made up of Forrest Nelson, Goding, Neil Vaughan, Captain Don Jones and possibly Palfrey’s husband Chris, a distance swimmer, himself.
To follow Penny’s progress, visit Kozlovich’s website at kozhawaii.com to view the live Twitter feed, which will be updated as long as the crew has cell phone reception aboard the boat.
