Captain Michael Twigg-Smith was honored to escort South Africa’s Kieron Palframan as the first person to achieve the Oceans Seven in a 42 km crossing of the Molokai Channel that ended in Oahu, Hawaii.
He explains, “With Kieron’s third attempt at the Molokai’s Ka’iwi Channel, he is charmed with a finish in the time of 21 hours 26 minutes. His trials with the Ka’iwi were significant.
In 2022, Kieron attempted the Channel of Bones, but he became violently ill. It seemed to be seasickness at the time, but upon research and reflection, he thinks his feed may have ‘gone off’. I remember that the violence of his vomiting was over the top – it was much more than seasickness – a variety of expulsion.
Then earlier this year in 2023, Kieron made his second attempt and was crushing it with about 4 km to go. He was all set to finish in about 14 hours when a box jellyfish got him. Kieron said, “It actually swam or propelled itself on to me!” The sting was very severe and he was out of the water in a few minutes, much to the dismay of the crew. Kieron’s wife, Donne, who assists as feeder on all Kieron’s swims was visibly in incensed with this DNF.
After waiting a long windy summer for the right weather, Kieron started his successful attempt on October 5th at 6:32 pm at Papohako Beach on Molokai.
He was able to hold the rhumb line, but it was not without great effort. There were currents that pushed subtly from the North, South, and West that made for slow going compared his second attempt. At the end with 2 km to go, a final push from the North, made a Sandy Beach finish the only option, where Kieron exited the water at 3:58 pm on October 6th. With that swim, he had completed the Oceans Seven Challenge. It was hard fought, but Kieron was successful in the end.”
Palframan’s perspective also hinted at the difficulty in his typically understated way, “It has been a whirlwind couple of days. I arrive at 12 am on Friday in Hawaii. Went to bed at 2 am. Awoke and was on Mike’s escort boat at 2 pm. Then, the 21-hour swim began. Swam right into a current and could only manage a 1.1 km per hour pace for the last 10 hours. It was insane. I guess this is what makes long distance swimming so interesting.
Anyway, I leave Hawaii today back to Cape Town with a rather sore body, but a great sense of achievement.”
His South African swim buddy Ram Barkai who swam across the Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, and Cape Horn with Palframan said, “Kieron is that type of swimmer that doesn’t know how to spell giving up. It has great tenacity to it, but I must admit I was worried, because I knew he is not going back. Hell or high water he is going to complete his Oceans Seven this time [in Molokai]. Box jellies, currents, sharks or heat: he did it. He is an amazingly strong swimmer. And he deserved this 100%. And so his partner Donne who’s second him in his roller coaster Oceans Seven. I am very relieved and proud of them.”
Across the Molokai Channel, Palframan had a boatload of experts: Captain Mike Twigg-Smith, Shelley Oates-Wilding as First Mate, Kainoa Lopes as escort kayaker, Jeff Villinger as escort kayaker, Sebastian Conway-Phillips as escort kayaker, and wife Donne Feede.
At the age of 34, Palframan started his Oceans Seven journey in the English Channel. 15 years later and thousands of oceans swims and thousands of miles of tough training under his cap, he became the 27th person in history to complete the Oceans Seven.
Palframan’s Ocean Seven Channels
- August 2008: 33.5 km English Channel from England to France in 12 hours 3 minutes
- September 2010: 14.4 km Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco in 4 hours 57 minutes.
- October 2016: 32.3 km Catalina Channel from Catalina Island to California in 10 hours 20 minutes
- August 2018: 35 km North Channel from Northern Ireland to Scotland in 11 hours 30 minutes
- January 2019: 23 km Cook Strait from North Island to South Island in 8 hours 13 minutes
- August 2019: 19.5 km Tsugaru Channel from Honshu to Hokkaido in Japan in 8 hours 49 minutes
- October 2023: 42 km Molokai Channel from Molokai to Oahu in Hawaii in 21 hours 26 minutes
Oceans Seven Swimmers in History:
- Stephen Redmond (Ireland)
- Anna Carin Nordin (Sweden)
- Michelle Macy (USA)
- Darren Miller (USA)
- Adam Walker (UK)
- Kimberley Chambers (New Zealand)
- Antonio Argüelles (Mexico)
- Ion Lazarenco Tiron (Moldavia and Ireland)
- Rohan Dattatrey More (India)
- Abhejali Bernardová (Czech Republic)
- Cameron Bellamy (South Africa)
- Lynton Mortensen (Australia)
- Thomas Pembroke (Australia)
- Nora Toledano Cadena (Mexico)
- Mariel Hawley Dávila (Mexico)
- André Wiersig (Germany)
- Elizabeth Fry (USA)
- Attila Mányoki (Hungary)
- Jonathan Ratcliffe (UK)
- Jorge Crivilles Villanueva (Spain)
- Adrian Sarchet (Guernsey)
- Prabhat Koli (India)
- Dina Levačić (Croatia)
- Herman van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
- Andy Donaldson (Scotland)
- Stephen Junk (Australia)
- Kieron Palframan (South Africa)
© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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