Drone pic, Palm Beach Start

27 kms. from Palm Beach to Shelly Beach: Swimming all the way!

This past Saturday, April 17 Laura, a Mollymook ocean swimmer, completed this ultra-marathon swim. Despite the choppy conditions at the start of the race, and the fact she had to swim against a southerly swell, plus had a small shark swimming about 20 metres away, for about 15 minutes, and that was only 2 hours into the swim. Regardless, she was able to draw inspiration from her supporters and get herself over the line faster than expected, finishing fourth overall after being pipped for third.

“It was just euphoric, honestly I just had the best time out there, I never felt tired or fatigued, I just had so much adrenaline going through me,” she said.

“It was such a close race swimming for third position for most of the way. We were basically sprinting for third position for the last kilometre or two.”

Laura was continuously getting donations throughout the race, and by the end she had exceeded her goal of $10,000. At the time of publication, the amount of donations was sitting at just under $11,000.

She is also grateful to the many Mollymook swimmers who have helped, supported and encouraged her over the past few months. And the emails she received post race were so encouraging. All were past on to Laura who I think is still on a high. Also there will be an article in tomorrow’s local Times newspaper. A heartfelt thanks from Laura to all who helped make this a reality.

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27 kms. Palm Beach to Shelly Beach, and swimming  a long way out from the shoreline.

Laura and her support crew: Paul, brother Jake, Laura, Lincoln, Stephen and Mel

Laura wrote: “Stephen Hosking was the man that I corresponded with at ‘The Quays’ marina, he got the crew together for me on the boat, he had himself as a skipper with Paul and Lincoln taking turns to skip every half hour . One of those guys was even a shipwright in case anything happened to the boat. My brother Jake was responsible for my feeds every half hour”

Laura shared Stephen’s word after the race:  “Hey, I must say, that was one of the most inspiring, humbling and extraordinary feats I’ve ever witnessed. All done with such poise and steely determination. As the old expression goes …. My lid is permanently dipped in your direction. I so hope you slept soundly and wake up this morning extremely proud of what you have achieved.  And we were proud to play our small part for you. I’ll be in touch next week as there’s been some traction on our marina social media sites that I’ll fill you in on.  

Oh, and no one guessed 7 hours !?!?

Take care, rest up and chat soon”, Stephen.

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Mollymook Ocean Swimmers

Destination Mollymook Milton Ulladulla