Above: Please click HERE to see the up to date LIVE tracker during the world record swim attempt.
I am very excited to announce I will be attempting a World Record 128km open water swim in the Bahamas during late October. Taking up to 48 hours to complete, the swim will start from the southern tip of the island of Eleuthera and finish at the island of Nassau. If successful I will have completed the longest solo, continuous, unassisted marathon swim in open-water in history!!
I am commonly asked “Why?” when, in the past, I have mentioned my double and triple English Channel Solo Attempts, Cuba – USA attempt and now again I am asked “Why?” – usually by non-sporty people as sporty people understand without needing an explanation. Well, the longer answer is that I have always set out to push the boundaries of this sport – whether it was attempting a Double Solo English Channel Crossing on my first swim in the English Channel in 2009 or trying to swim from Cuba – USA in just bathers, goggles and cap (2013) under traditional marathon swimming rules. But, to save time my answer to their question is usually “Why not?”. To which I am often given a million reasons why not to swim crazy marathons (usually due to the physical difficulty) which makes sense to these people but not to me! For a starters… why live in your physical and mental comfort zone? We all know that incredible life-changing moments, growth, bonding experiences and transformation never happen there!
I believe most of us do not even begin to comprehend our true potential in life. And if you cant envision yourself succeeding to your fullest potential how will you ever get there? How will you be able to create a map or action plan? Sure, there are risks attached to publicly sharing incredibly difficult goals for yourself… And yes, by creating huge goals for myself which are very public I do risk backlash from negative people (but as Taylor Swift sings so eloquently ‘And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate’ because that’s what they do! and that’s why she is ‘just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it off, shake it off’). Sometimes its the insecure hater who fears your potential because they themselves are jealous that you have the courage to fight for your dreams when they don’t. I also risk “failure” on a public scale potentially in front of hundreds of millions of people. But, I am not afraid of failure, even though this holds many people back…. Maybe it’s not just fearing failure that’s holding so many people back… is there also a greater fear at work?
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God; your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. – Nelson Mandela
Yes, some people may view that by publicly fighting for my dreams to become reality, I am risking ‘backlash’ and ‘failure’ during this incredibly long (up to 48hrs of continuous swimming) marathon. But, that doesn’t bother me at all! I do know that this swim will be tough – likely the toughest I have ever experienced. I will need to draw on immense physical strength and endurance as well as resources which go beyond physical manifestations – the mind and spirit. To help me through rough mental patches – which I will undoubtedly encounter – I will remember all the people who have kindly supported me along my journey (in person and online) and many of their spirits will travel with me in my mind and some of their amazing spirits will be there in their physical state too as Paul (my husband) and I have once again drawn on an amazing, skilled team from Australia, USA and locally in the Bahamas to be the support crew!
Hopefully my swim will inspire you to dream for GREATER things then you had originally envisioned for yourself, to be more COURAGEOUS when setting goals for yourself, empowers you to be LOUDER by sharing with pride and confidence your dreams than you ever have before, encourages you to beRESILIENT when others don’t share your enthusiasm for your goals (as Bernard M. Baruch said “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind”) and reminds you of the virtue of PATIENCE as you wont always achieve your dreams the first time around (Thomas A. Edison on creating the electric light globe- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”)
Although my immediate goal before the end of October is to swim a marathon World Record my ultimate aims is to inspire hundreds of millions to reach further for their dreams and create the lives they wish for… If you share this post with others we will hopefully be one step closer to making that a reality. Thanks again to my amazing sponsors The Pool Enclosure Company (TPEC), Lo-Chlor Chemicals andAurora Expeditions!! And to Ron and Karen and all the staff involved in this swim from The Island School and Andy and Nancy Knowles and Brianna from Swift Swimming for their support! Thank you to all my amazing crew – first my SELFLESS, PATIENT, HARDWORKING, TIRELESS HUSBAND Paul and second the everyone from The Island School and our extra US & Aussie Crew members (Andy, Niles and Ken)- you are all invaluable to this swim. On a separate note: I would like to thank David Barra who is our Chief Official Observer – he will be observing the swim under the official Marathon Swimming Federation (MSF) rules.
My crew will be updating my social media with text and also the GPS live tracker during the swim so connect now for updates… For those in Australia the Channel 7 network will be exclusively covering the swim and sending live updates via satellite from the boat back to Australia, so tune in!
Above: Photo which appeared in the Bahamas Tribune. I was helping out with a government program run by Andy and Nancy Knowles from Swift Swimming in Nassau which provides swimming lessons to primary school children.
