Great Sendai Earthquake of 2011
The strongest earthquake in recorded history in northern Japan occurred on March 11th 2011.
The magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck in the early afternoon about 30 km below the floor of the western Pacific Ocean. The earthquake was caused by the rupture in the Japan Trench. The were hundreds of aftershocks including dozens of magnitude 6.0 or greater and two of magnitude 7.0 or greater.
The earthquake led to a series of massively unprecedented tsunami wave. A 10-meter high tsunami completely overwhelmed the coastal areas of northern Japan – and created effects and led to warnings throughout the Pacific basin. The tsunami generated waves up to 3.6 metres along the coasts of Kauai and Hawaii as well as hitting the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, along the coasts of of California and Antarctica where ultimately over 18,500 people lost their lives.
The earthquake and tsunami combination was one of the deadliest natural disasters in Japanese history. The total damage was estimated to be US$220 billion, making it the most expensive disaster in history. The 9.0 earthquake was the largest magnitude earthquake in Japan. In many coastal towns in northern Japan along the Pacific Ocean, the ocean waters flooded to the 4th floor of buildings with approximately 500,000 houses were completely or partial destroyed. It was a human disaster of very sad, epic proportions.
Authorities issue a tsunami warning throughout the Pacific Rim within 10 minutes of the earthquake occurring.
On Molokai Island in Hawaii
While the Japanese population was dealing with the aftermath of the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900, Australian marathon swimmers Chris Palfrey and Penny Palfrey were planning a 45 km Molokai Channel crossing the following (early) day and were sleeping in Hotel Molokai. No one had yet grasped what had occurred in Japan – at least in the Molokai Hotel that late at night.
“But that late night, I was shocked out of bed by a frantic hotel management staff banging at our door and telling us to evacuate. We had 10 minutes to evacuate. There was no negotiation. The staff was focused on saving people’s lives,” recalled Steven Munatones who part of the Palfrey support team. “We all immediately got up and quickly packed our gear, but we had no idea want was going on. We could never imagine a tsunami was happening due to an unimaginable earthquake way over near Japan. But all the hotel guests stumbled out of bed…and were piling in their cars to get away from the shoreline – for the Hotel Molokai sits on the shoreline, facing the islands of Lanai and Maui.
Chris and Penny seemed to be the calmest couple among all the hotel guests. They had a lot of gear to pack – and it was clear that Penny’s crossing was cancelled, without specifically saying to. I had gathered my stuff and jumped into Chris and Penny’s rental car within the 10-minute grace period. Most of the other hotel guests were already departed and the parking lot was nearly empty.
The guests were literally, hightailing it to high ground in their rental cars.
We were told to evacuate to the evacuation center on Molokai – which was the only public high school on the island. But we did not know where the high school was located, so Chris just followed the lights of the cars ahead of us, winding up the side of the volcanic mountain. We finally arrived in the high school – still wondering exactly what was happening. We heard specific instructions on what to do during a tsunami on the rental car radio.
It was still very dark at night on Molokai. Molokai isn’t anything like Los Angeles or Las Vegas. When the sun goes down, Molokai’s neighborhoods get dark really fast.
By the time, we reached the high school, the gymnasium was filled with people of all ages and the local volunteers had things very well organized. The locals were serious about these preparations. It was obvious that they had experienced this drill before.
The volunteers greeted us with smiles and a genuine sense of aloha spirit. They were kind and compassionate and showed us where we could wait out the tsunami and where coffee and water were being set up. Their calm demeanor helped slow my racing heartbeat. No one was panicking; no one was in shock. People just quietly settled down for the night, munched on snacks or drank coffee, although nearly everyone were more interested on listening to radio and TV broadcasts.“
The organizers were very helpful and reassuring with their friendly smiles – that must have masked their worries. There was still so much unknown at the time: how big was the tsunami going to be, what kind of damage was going to occur?
“I remember sitting next to Chris and Penny on the bleachers – like we were about to watch a high school basketball game. They remained so outwardly calm at 10:30 pm.
Penny had set up a little personal space on the bleachers in the gymnasium. Using her backpack as a pillow and her towel as bedding, she was the epitome of a zen-like calm.“
After Chris and Penny reached the safety of high ground and had a better grasp of the situation as the morning dawn came, they started to wonder what was next. Could they and their escort pilot, Jim Dickson and his son Codie Dickson, realistically consider an alternative date for her Molokai Channel crossing? It seemed unlikely at best, and probably impossible. Just returning home was a major issue for most.
Unable to sleep on the bleachers, on the cots, or on the hardwood basketball floor, Penny and Chris clearly had worry etched all over their faces – throughout the night and into the next day. Could Penny even start – whenever – her crossing, a swim that her husband Chris held, the record of 12 hours 53 minutes.
Meanwhile, Dickson was instructed by the authorities to leave the wharf where he had been waiting for Penny’s arrival the following morning. Dickson and Codie left for deep water out of the impact of the tidal surge that was expected. All boaters and mariners were similarly told to leave their port or harbor and wait out the impact of the tsunami in deeper waters.
Chris worked his telephone and was trying to figure out what to do next, but the unknown and uncertainty reigned. Neither Penny, Chris, Jim, nor Codie could predict what would happen over the next 24 hours. But the Palfrey and Dickson teams both steadfastly kept faith that the swim would eventually come off. They constantly stood alert for any breaks, updates, and opportunities. No one knew if the surge impact would be minimal or devastating.
Day Break
Dawn eventually came. As the sun started to rise higher over the horizon, the tsunami warnings and lockdowns remained in effect. Penny had moved from trying to sleep on uncomfortable gymnasium bleachers to resting in the back of her rental car. By 8:00 am, Penny and Chris were much more anxious and restless. Their energy was contagious; they wanted to see what could be done.
Chris hopped in the car and drove down the foothills – where the Molokai High School was located – towards the shoreline. He tried to get to the wharf, taking all kinds of main roads and back roads, but the local police had blocked all roads and there was absolutely no possibility of getting down to the water’s edge. Reluctantly, he and Penny headed back to the safety of the evacuation center – and continued to communicate with the Dickson’s.
Next Steps
Penny, Chris and the Dickson’s talked on and off throughout the morning via telephone. They collectively decided to see if the restrictions would be lifted later in the day. They were game to swim, but for every hour Penny’s start was delayed, the weather started to deteriorate. Stronger winds came up; whitecaps could be seen off in the distance across the channel. All their months of planning that had gone into picking the right time and the right place to start the swim, but this planning seemed all for naught at the time.
Restrictions Lifted
Penny and Chris had little sleep and certainly did not plan on spending the night up worried and restless on gymnasium bleachers.
By 9:00 am, the authorities had lifted vehicular travel restrictions. Penny and Chris were granted access to the wharf where the Dickson’s had been waiting. Chris drove fast towards the shoreline.
But shock greeted them as they drove to the shore. The continued tsunami surge had broadsided all the islands of Hawaii. Waves were going OUT from the shore back towards the ocean – it was the strangest sight – like the entire ocean had gone entirely mad. Things were not normal.
Furthermore, there appeared to be a lot of pent-up energy in the ocean between the islands of Molokai, Maui, Lanai and Oahu. Yet, despite these ominous signs, Penny and Chris boarded the Dickson’s escort boat, Kihei Boy, with all due haste. Dickson drove full throttle to the start on the western shore of Molokai as Penny prepared her swimsuit, cap, goggles and other gear on a rocking boat where it was not easy to stand.
La’au Point on Molokai
Dickson had gunned his motors to reach La’au Point on Molokai Island as fast as possible. Penny’s goal – Oahu – was a full 45 km away while stiff winds slapped everyone on the boat in their faces. It was an angry ocean with a relentless stream of whitecaps staring at Penny. Penny’s veneer of calmness was palpable, but it was still problematic in these conditions. But she never faulted in her confidence as she applied layers and layers of sunscreen and lanolin to protect her skin and went through her normal stretching regimen and preparations.
Penny was ready to take on Mother Nature come hell or high water.
The Crossing
At 10:54 am, Penny jumped in the water and took off at her controlled and steady 76 stroke per minute pace. There was no way that Penny could make it into shore. The surf was way too high and rough. The shoreline conditions were too turbulent to risk getting close to Molokai. So she swam as close to shore as she could safely do*, reversed her course, and started off on her traverse to Oahu in the most uncertain conditions possible. Later, Ralph Goto, the Ocean Safety Administrator on Oahu, said, “We could not believe you were out there.”
Hour after hour, Penny maintained a quick pace and only occasionally commented that the conditions were less than ideal. “The water is kind of bumpy,” she said with a quick smile during her regular feeding stops every thirty minutes.
She gave strict instructions to her crew – “give me data” that she needed to pace herself throughout the swim, including how far she swam and how far she needed to go.
By the fifth hour, it was apparent that Palfrey was swimming on record pace despite the less-than-ideal circumstances and her offshore start. She recalled, “It was tough. I wanted to put in a big effort in the beginning, so I could get away from the Molokai shore due to our late start. I guess I used up a fair bit of energy and I thought I would pay for it later, but I have done a lot of training. That last bit [of the swim] was hard getting into shore [on Oahu] with the full flood of the ebb tide.”
Palfrey acknowledged the tough stretch of water was also incredibly gorgeous. “It was great out there. It was beautiful. I swam over a whale before my first feed. I first thought it was a whale shark, but I also saw the bottom so I figured that it could not possibly be [a whale shark]. That was pretty amazing. I saw dolphins. I actually saw their fins.”
Every 30 minutes Palfrey stopped, but she only eggbeatered ever so briefly. First, she had a banana-flavored drink on her first feeding stop, then a chocolate-flavored drink on her second, then coffee-flavored on her third. Over and over again, but the stops were nearly always under 10 seconds. She repeated the feeding protocol: reach, drink, listen to instructions, and go. Reach, drink, listen to instructions, and go…over and over again. She was making a highly unusual difficult channel crossing on a particularly tough day look almost impossibly easy.
After she landed on Oahu 11 hours 40 minutes after the bumpy swim, she reflected on her crossing, “It was rough. The beginning was particularly tough. The ocean never really settled down. It was hard work. I am satisfied. My crew was amazing; they worked hard. I knew everyone was tired after getting no sleep with the tsunami warning and asked to leave the hotel. It was a big effort from everybody.”
Her effort was more than an hour faster than her husband’s previous record, but since she had not swum from shore to shore, it was not an official swim.
Impressions
Official or not, Munatones was humbled with Palfrey’s monumental effort. “Since first watching channel swimmers in 1979, Penny’s swim was one of the gutiest swims I have ever had the privilege to witness. She made one of the toughest channels in the world – on a particularly rough day under extraordinarily unusual conditions after a sleepless night in the midst of a tsunami continuing to pound the shorelines of all Hawaiian islands – look relatively simple. Few others could have done that.”
Ocean Conditions Near The Start
Mid-channel Swimming
Remembering Chris Palfrey
In July this year, Penny announced the all-too-early passing of her 67-year-old husband Chris, a member of the Australian Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, “I am devastated to break this news, and it is with a heavy heart that I write this post. My beloved husband Chris, passed away last Thursday on July 18th suddenly and unexpectedly.
He was a kind, loving, generous man, whose greatest loves were his family, his friends, his dogs and his sport.
He touched the lives of many people around the world and will be greatly missed. One life lived, many lives touched.”
Chris completed numerous channel crossings and marathon swims around the world. His career highlights are posted on the Marathon Swimmers Federation LongSwims database (see here).
- Strait of Gibraltar (twice) between Spain and Morocco
- Molokai Channel in Hawaii
- Pailolo Channel in Hawaii
- Maui Channel in Hawaii
- Catalina Channel in California
- ‘Alalākeiki Channel in Hawaii
- Santa Rosa Island to Santa Cruz Island in California
- Rottnest Channel Swim in Western Australia (9 times)
- Manhattan Island Marathon Swim in New York (3 times)
- Tampa Bay Marathon Swim in Florida
- Magnetic Island to Townsville (5 times) in Queensland, Australia
- Swim Around Charleston in South Carolina
- Swim the Suck in Tennessee
- FKCC Swim Around Key West in Florida
The passion Chris had for the sport, and more importantly, the care for the swimmers who he supported, encouraged, mentored, and swam with was off-the-charts and deeply genuine. Successful or a DNF, Chris always had a shoulder to lean on and a touching smile on his face.
He is shown below in a video in the Anacapa Channel off the coast of California with his wife Penny.
Taupo x 3
Chris was instrumental in the success of the Taupo x 3 relay, an unprecedented 126 km three-way relay crossing of Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand, in January 2009.
Starting on January 6th, Chris and Penny Palfrey, together with Julie Bradshaw (England), organized two relay teams that set a world lake swimming record. Two boats were organized and escorted by Philip Rush and were divided by gender: one boat had Steve Junk (Australia), Mark Cockroft (New Zealand), Dougal Hunt (Australia), Chris Palfrey (Australia), and Stephen Spence (Australia) onboard; the other boat had Michelle Macy (USA), Barbara Pellick (Australia), Penny Palfrey (Australia), Lucy Roper (England), and Heather Osborn (New Zealand) onboard.
The men’s team finished the triple-crossing in 33 hours 31 minutes with the women’s team a few minutes behind in 33 hours 33 minutes – in a swim that Dr. Bradshaw said was – originally at least – not meant to be a race.
Chris described the Taupo x 3 relay, “By any standards, Lake Taupo is big. Located in the centre of the north island of New Zealand, the lake was formed by a massive volcanic explosion which made an enormous divot in the landscape, eventually filling with fresh water. Roughly 40 km long, and almost as wide, our boat skippers said with some pride, that the lake covered the same area as Singapore.
The idea to do a relay swim across the lake came about back in 2007. Because Philip Rush had told us previously that there had been a small number of solo and relay crossings of the lake, I said, “How about a triple crossing of the lake?” And the wheels were set in motion.
Philip took care of the boats and inflatable boats for guiding swimmers at close quarters, one for each team.
We determined rules for the swim and adopted the Channel Swimming Association and Channel Piloting & Swimming Federation rules for relay crossings and adopted these rules:
• No wetsuits. Swimsuits must be FINA approved.
• No artificial aids.
• No external assistance to the swimmer. The swimmer cannot be touched (except on the relay changes) or be supported while swimming.
• Relay changeovers to occur each hour. That is, one person swims for one hour, and then has five hours rest, repeating the sequence until the finish.
• Each relay change to occur by the fresh person swimming up behind the retiring swimmer, tagging hands above the water and then taking over.
• Swimmers to remain in their designated order.
• Swimmer to clear the water at the end of each lap and immediately return and recommence swimming.
Our group filtered into the town of Taupo, at the northern end of the lake, between December 31st and January 3rd. And Taupo itself was bustling, being a favourite holiday destination for the Kiwis. There was great camaraderie between the group and a sense of oneness.
On January 4th, Philip gave the final briefing. The water temperature was 18.5°C (65°F) and the weather forecast was good, so we would swim the following day. We met at the marina at 2.00am on Monday January 5th, loaded the boats, and started our journey to the southern end of the lake.
The plan was to start at first light from near Tokaanu, at the southernmost point of the lake, heading roughly north east past Motutaiko Island, cutting close to Rangitiri point, before finishing on the beach in front of the Waikato River. The distance by GPS for one lap was 40.2 km. The second lap would retrace our course back to the starting point and the final lap was a repeat of the first. The idea of starting early was to have only one night of swimming, as we thought we might take anything from 36 to 40 hours to complete the journey, depending on weather conditions.
We reached our starting point at 5:00 am. The water was calm, but we did not know how long the good conditions would last. We got underway at 5.33 am.
It was said many times that this was not a race and that we were one group, embarking on a shared challenge. But, beneath the surface, we were athletes with strong competitive natures. Penny and Steve managed 3.9 km in 57 minutes [on the first leg]. Mark and Michelle were next up and even though they had said they didn’t want to go hard, early on in the journey, it was clear that neither swimmer wanted the other to gain an advantage.
Mark established a 20-meter lead on Michelle as they both did 3.9 km for their one-hour rotation. We were changing over at 6.30, 7.30, 8.30, etc to keep it simple. Up next was Dougal and Barb and he managed to give the boys a 100-meter advantage, doing 3.8 km in his hour.
Heather and I were up next. I have had a niggling shoulder injury for a few months so I had resolved to take it steady. I surrendered the lead and handed the girls a 100-metre advantage.
Julie and Stephen were up next. Stephen jumped in [and] it was clear that he was a man on a mission. He did an impressive 4 km in his hour and gave us back a 200-meter lead.
At about this time, it occurred to us blokes, that we actually had a chance of beating the girls, although the swim was never meant to be a race. I thought the men would finish well behind. Anyhow, we now realised that we were going to have some fairly close rivalry, so the boys all lifted the pace considerably. In the first five one hour rotations, we managed 19.1 km, and in the second five hours we achieved 20 km. But the girls were never far behind.
The men finished the first leg of 40.2 km in a time of 10 hours 22 minutes; the girls were a mere 6 minutes astern.
In the course of the early afternoon, a light breeze had developed from the south. So we enjoyed a slight push along for the last 1½ hours of the first lap. But as we now started retracing our strokes toward the southern end of the lake, we now had to punch into a light headwind. The wind increased to around 10 knots from a WSW direction until around 3 am.
We [faced] a 2-foot chop. In our first five-hour rotation [on] the second lap, we covered 18 km, compared to 20 km for the latter half of the first lap.
[Between] 6:30 to 7:30 pm, with the breeze and the sun sinking low on the horizon, it was becoming quite cool. After 14 hours of swimming, we were starting to feel tired.
My next shift in the water was [between] 11:30 pm to 12:30 am. It was dark and very choppy. Swimming at night was actually quite enjoyable. There was a ¾ moon which gave some natural light, there was nothing to fear from predators, and time seemed to tick by much faster than during the day.
We still held a slender 150m lead on the girls, which we held until the end of the second lap. We had covered the second lap in 12 hours 15 minutes and the girls finished their second lap a mere 4 minutes behind. Whilst the swim was not a race, the rivalry was as intense as it was fascinating.
By mid morning, the blokes had all done five one-hour rotations at ever increasing amounts of effort, and we were starting to suffer. And the girls were either nipping at our heels or enjoying a slight lead.
When I took over from Dougal, we were abeam of Motutaiko Island, about half way through the last lap. The water was calm and I was swimming just in front of the bow. I could see the girls boat 250 metres to our right and about 30 metres in front. I could even see the splash from Julie’s stroke. When Stephen took over from me, we had a good 200m lead.
When Steve and Penny took to the water for their final burst, the blokes enjoyed a 600m lead. One hour later, when Mark and Michelle went into battle, our lead was cut to less than 50 metres. Steve did an incredible 4.5 km in his hour, on his seventh rotation, and we almost had to drag him out of the water. So that meant Penny must have covered 5 km. In fresh water, after a day and a half, with very little sleep and the accumulated fatigue, that was quite extraordinary.
Mark and Michelle had previously been very evenly matched, and with only around 10 km to go, it couldn’t have been closer. For 30 minutes it was neck and neck, with no change in positions. But then, as we approached Rangatiri point, we started to inch ahead. We were about 100m closer to the point and our skippers wanted to cut as close to the shore as possible [to] pick up any current.
We had a little over 100m lead when Barb and Dougal started their final rotation. We only had 6 km to go, and could see the sailing club building, where we would finish our epic journey.
I was hoping for a lead, as Heather and I would be doing the final 2 km sprint to shore. At the last change, Dougal had given us a 200m lead. Heather had previously been faster than I, so I went as hard as I could. Every few minutes, I snuck a quick peep under my shoulder, but my confidence was growing as I could see their boat wasn’t getting any closer. And then finally, I swam past the channel markers at the river entrance, and could see the bottom. The guys on the boat jumped in and swam the last 200m with me.
Standing and running up the sand was an amazing feeling. We were sunburnt, very sore and physically spent, but almost overwhelmed with our accomplishment. We raised our arms and cheered Rod and Steve (skippers) and Paul (safety officer/observer) back on the boat.
Heather hit the beach a mere 2 minutes 39 seconds behind, and the other girls also swam in with her. There were hugs, kisses and handshakes all round as we huddled together, to the amusement of the local beachgoers.
WE DID IT!!! After 120.6 km, Philip advised our finishing time at 33 hours 31 minutes 15 seconds. The girls did 33 hours 33 minutes 54 seconds. I don’t think it would be possible to find two teams so evenly matched.
Our splits were:
- Men: Lap 1 (10 hours 22 minutes), Lap 2 (12 hours 15 minutes), Lap 3 (10 hours 54 minutes)
- Women: Lap 1 (10 hours 28 minutes), Lap 2 (12 hours 13 minutes), Lap 3 (10 hours 53 minutes)
A month before our swim, we became aware that a world record relay lake swim had been set in Florida in September, 2008. In that relay, two teams of 50 swimmers, each doing 2 km, covered 100 km in 37 hours 6 minutes and 41 hours 15 minutes, respectively.
Whilst we were not motivated by the record, we knew that we only had to finish to break it, so we will certainly proceed to have it ratified. And it appears that both teams will create a record.
New Zealand is a scenic and beautiful country. Swimmers are welcome to try to break our relay record, or solo swimmers can attempt the full crossing. Philip Rush is the best contact person for this.“
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