An Australian mother-of-three who set a new record for a solo unassisted ocean swim last year is planning an attempt on the 103 mile (166 km) stretch of water between Cuba and Florida — without the assistance of a shark cage.
Penny Palfrey, a 49-year-old grandmother who has already broken 10 world records, will try to break her own record for the longest ever unassisted open water swim in June, the Townsville Bulletin reported Saturday.
Palfrey set the record for the longest solo unassisted ocean swim when she conquered the 67 miles (108km) between Little Cayman Island and Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean in June last year.
Unassisted means she swam without a cage and with no wetsuit. She is also not allowed to leave the water or hold a boat or other flotation device until the swim is complete.
As a child in Britain, Palfrey said she dreamed of swimming the English Channel, but it wasn't until she moved to Australia and had three children of her own that she was able to do it.
She "trained" for that swim by becoming the first Queenslander to cross New Zealand's chilly Cook Strait and the first Australian woman to cross the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco.
Palfrey was the first woman to swim the Alenuihaha Channel from Hawaii to Maui and the first person to swim from Santa Barbara Island to Point Vincente off California.
"I really love the travel, the friends and the challenge of the swim, and putting the swim together," she explained.
"You go to swims that have never been done before and you're on your own."
