Miss Sweeney Planning To Swim Cook Strait

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29716, 9 January 1962, Page 12

Miss Sweeney Planning To Swim Cook Strait

(New Zealand Press Association)

BLENHEIM, Jan. 8.

Miss Margaret Sweeney, of Auckland, is ready to attempt to swim Cook Strait, the trick stretch of water which has defeated all previous efforts by various swimmers to conquer it. Miss Sweeney is coming to Blenheim by plane tomorrow and will go immediately to Te Pangu guesthouse, in Tory Channel, to wait for favourable conditions.

She has again requested Mr G. Perano, a member of the Tory Channel whaling party, whose knowledge of the strait, its habits and its dangers is based on a lifetime association with it, to be her “pilot.” He will advise Miss Sweeney when conditions are favourable and will accompany her across the strait in a whalechaser. It is expected that the swim, if successful, will take at least 14 hours and that Miss Sweeney’s North Island landfall will be Ohau point, north of Cape Terawhiti. She will enter the water at Wellington head, a

mile or so north of the Tory Channel entrance. Miss Sweeney trained solidly last year for her first attempt on the strait, but after waiting for some days for the right water conditions she gave up the venture.