Becoming first swimmer in the world to navigate Cape Horn and tackling the perilous waters of the Bering Straits are among experiences which extreme cold-water swimmer, adventurer and author Nuala Moore will talk about during an illustrated talk in the Connemara Coast Hotel on Thursday, February 27.

Hosted by Cumann Seoltóireachta an Spidéil as part of the sailing club’s Eachtránaithe inár Measc (Adventurers in our Midst) winter talks series, all proceeds will go towards Galway RNLI, with support from Bus Éireann and Mahon Solicitors.

Nuala Moore, from Dingle, Co Kerry, has been swimming at extreme temperatures and remote locations for over a decade, Her childhood, growing up in a fishing family, meant the sea has been a way of life for her, excelling in both marathon swimming and ice swimming.

She is a double Guinness World Record holder and she has won medals in ice swimming world championships, while her marathon events have included the 26 km Lake Zurich swim in 2011.

In 2006 she was one of six swimmers to relay swim around the island of Ireland in swim togs, covering more than 1,330km over 56 days and swimming up to 20 miles offshore in the most challenging waters.

In 2013 she became the first Irish swimmer and the third woman in the world to complete 1000m in zero degrees ice in Murmansk, Russia in 23 minutes, pioneering the way for ice swimming.

In 2013, she was lead team member of the only international relay to swim across the Bering Straits, from Russia to the USA, along with Donegal woman Anne Marie Ward – both in swim togs.

She has represented Ireland in five ice swimming world championships, completing 1000m distances in swim togs in Russia, Finland, and Germany and winning the Russian Ice Swimming 1000m Championships in Krasnoyarsk Russia in 2016.

Nuala Moore has relayed from Chile to Argentina across the Beagle Channel and also completed a relay from Uruguay to Argentina across the Rio de la Plata. She has also made a double-crossing relay of the English Channel in a five-person team

In 2018, she became the first swimmer to navigate Cape Horn, crossing the meridian from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean in the Drake Passage.

She is also the first woman in the world to swim south of Cape Horn. During that trip, she brought the RNLI flag to the lighthouse on Cape Horn island.

An inspirational speaker, she has been listed three times in the Top 50 “World’s Most Adventurous Women in Open Water” and twice shortlisted for the “World Open Water Woman of the Year”.

She has self-funded all her international expeditions; she has donated over €90,000 to charities and is involved in educational initiatives on water safety and rescue.

She is the founder of “Ocean Remote, Recovery, Remote Emergency Care”, an interagency summit involving medical and rescue services and water-based athletes and providers with the aim of improving safety planning for events on water. And she is the author of Limitless: From Dingle to Cape Horn, Finding My True North in the Earth’s Vastest Oceans, published by Gill Books in September 2023.

Tickets are available at the door from 7.15pm.

Pictured: Galway talk…extreme cold water swimmer Nuala Moore.