When you’re in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, miles from anywhere while trying to create a world record, letting people on shore know how you’re getting on could pose a challenge.
Not for Penny Palfrey though.
The 48-year-old Australian marathon swimmer, who will attempt to swim 68 miles from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman in her Bridging The Cayman Islands swim on 9 June, has a communications team armed with satellite phones, Twitter, Facebook, audio reports, video and GPS tracking to ensure her fans, family, friends and the swimming community around the world know all about her progress.
“Penny’s swim is setting the standard in communicating a channel or marathon swim in real time. There has been nothing like it,” said Steven Munatones, a former world champion swimmer and coach who is the keeper of open water world records in his capacity as director of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. He will be on one of the escort boats that will run alongside Ms Palfrey during her swim.
“What we are setting out to do is innovative, technologically and logistically advanced and helps fuel the interest in the sport. The more interest made available, the more interest will be generated,” Mr. Munatones said.
Mobile phone coverage on the boats accompanying the swimmer will disappear about six miles from the Islands, so the lead escort boat will have SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger technology on board to track her throughout the swim. Once that technology is activated, it transmits the boat’s GPS coordinates. This will enable her location to be pinpointed in real time on Google Maps on SPOT pings.
At all times, the boat will be within 50 feet of Ms Palfrey and her position will be updated every 10 minutes, with her latest location posted on the Flowers Sea Swim website. Updates will be sent out on Twitter and Facebook while Internet and mobile phone communications are still available at the beginning and end of the swim.
There will also be audio updates from support crew on the boat, including Mr. Munatones, every 30 minutes via satellite phone and Radio Cayman will broadcast updates on the swimmer’s progress regularly.
The Caymanian Compass will also post updates on Ms Palfrey’s swim on the caycompass.com website.
The audio updates will be transmitted online at the Open Water Source website, run by Mr. Munatones, and will include commentary on the swimmer’s condition and the weather and sea state.
“The audio updates gives colour and commentary to her progress, i.e., how she feels, how she looks, what she eats, the weather conditions…”, Mr. Munatones said.
These updates will also be archived for later review and historical perspective.
Video images of the swim will be taken by helicopters at the start, in mid-channel and as Ms Palfrey is approaching Grand Cayman at the end of the swim.
Several boats will escort her on her swim and she will have a 46-member crew, including a medical team to deal with any emergencies.
This is the biggest challenge undertaken by Ms Palfrey who has broken several open water swim records over the years.
Her longest swim to date was 17 hours swimming 30 miles between Hawaii and Maui. The swim between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman could take 40 hours or more, depending on sea conditions.
If her Bridging The Cayman Islands swim is successful, she will have completed the longest unassisted ocean solo swim in the world. Unassisted is defined as swimming without a wet suit or shark cage.
Ms Palfrey is scheduled to arrive in the Cayman Islands on Friday morning, 3 June. As well as swimming from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman, she also plans to break a speed record swimming from Cayman Brac to Little Cayman, and she and her husband Chris also intend to take part in the Flowers Sea Swim on Saturday, 18 June.
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