The "Adventures in Paradise" Issue

Para-royal takes out tallies for 2011/12...

So now we know -- the 2011/12 fine ocean swimmers tallies has been won by Duckenfield para-royal Michael J Fox (above... er, right). But announcing this has elicited some other remarkable information which has led to another award at season's end...

When he heard of the fantastic Mr Fox's win, Port Macquarie's Neil Daley contacted us to say how much he'd enjoyed the season. We'd noticed Neil's name through the year: it seemed every weekend he was driving from home in Port to Sydney to swim. Or to anywhere else where a swim was on. Now Neil tells us...

"My involvement provided me with a great deal of satisfaction and this was fostered by the tallies and
enhanced by the weekly commentary," said Neil, by email from the Lower North Coast.
"I completed 29 swims, did 63.1 kms and finished 16th in NSW and at 60 (now 61) was first in my age group.
"Three years ago (before moving to Port Macquarie from Adelaide) I could barely swim 100 metres. I had a ball - congratulations to Michael on his effort - towards the end of season I got to know him as i did number of other regulars... this also added to the experience.
"For the record I travelled 17,350 kms (verified using Google Maps) to do the swims.
"It was all worth the effort though I am currently suffering badly with pain in my shoulders."

We're not surprised about the shoulders, although we did have advance warning of Neil's shoulder problems, so we proffered gratuitous advice, on the beach at Pacific Palms on how he might address them. To get an idea of the enormity of Neil's effort, click the Read more button to see what the 1st inaugural winner of the fine ocean swimmers' tallies did to win his award.

And in recognition of his effort, we can announce here and now that Neil has won the Ocean Swimming Tragic of the Year Award -- an enormously significant and highly sought-after perpetual trophy that was held last year by Murray Cox. We'll present the award to Neil next time we see him.

To read more about Michael J Fox's win in our 2011/12 tallies, click the Read more button below...

Keeping tabs on Penny...

Townsville's Penny Palfrey -- a grandmother, if you will -- is about ready for her biggest challenge yet: swimming 166km from Cuba to Florida. It all happens in late June. To keep up with Penny's progress towards Cuba, keep an eye on her swim blob... click here

And when Penny starts her swim, you can follow her progress through a GPS tracker... click here

Penny tells us the GPS tracker will update her location every 10-20 mins or so.

We wish Penny the very best. If successful, it will break her own record for the world's longest "unassisted" ocean swim.