Chris Palfrey will be keeping a close eye on his wife during her marathon swims
When Penny Palfrey is powering through the sea between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman, the eyes of her husband Chris will be on her – for three hours at a time.
He is one of the support crew who will keep their eyes peeled for any signs of danger or any indications that she is in trouble and to ensure she eats and drinks when she should, as this week she attempts to set a world record for the longest unassisted solo ocean swim.
Asked if he ever gets nervous watching his wife on her long sea swims amid the potential dangers of strong currents, sharks or jellyfish she might encounter, he said: “I don’t really think about it. I’m a swimmer myself. It’s what we do.
“Obviously, you’ve got to be on the ball, watching everything, making sure you’re paying attention to her condition and keeping a good eye on what’s going on.”
One important task for those on board is making certain the boat is in the right position. “When you’re swimming, you can’t see too much,” he said.
The swimmer keeps the boat in sight rather than whatever land mass he or she is heading for, so the boat needs to on the most direct route to land. The lookouts on the boat spend three hours at a time focussing solely on the swimmer.
“We need to know all the time how she’s feeling… Doing that properly can be very demanding. You have to stay alert,” said Chris.
So, while Penny is in the water, Chris will spend three hours on active watch duty, three hours on back-up watch duty and then three hours resting. “For those three hours, I’ll be trying to sleep,” he said.
Mr. Palfrey admitted that it’s during the second half of a long-distance swim that staying alert becomes even more vital. “In the early stage, everyone’s excited… It is the latter half where it’s really important that you’re on the ball, so getting as much rest and sleep as you can is very important [for the lookouts].”
The two swims that make up Bridging the Cayman Islands – five miles from Cayman Brac to Little Cayman on Monday, and 68 miles from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman on Thursday, 9 June – are the culmination of more than six months of preparation for the Palfreys.
He and Penny first started thinking about doing the Bridging the Cayman Islands swim back in November. “We’d heard about the Flowers One Mile Sea Swim,” Chris said. “One mile swims aren’t really what we try to do, but we had heard about it, that it’s high profile and that Olympians do it.
“Steve Munatones said Mr. [Frank] Flowers had an idea about a swim. They contacted Penny and asked if we were interested. We thought it for, oh, about five seconds before saying yes.”
And as if they hadn’t had enough of the water this month, both Palfreys also plan to take part in the Flowers Sea Swim on Saturday, 18 June, before spending a few days relaxing. They leave Cayman on 21 June.
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