Palfrey’s epic helps tourism

Penny Palfrey’s world-record marathon swim will elevate the Cayman Islands open water swimming reputation by a considerable margin.  

That’s what sports minister Mark Scotland expects after he saw Palfrey swim an incredible 67.25 miles from Little Cayman to Morritt’s Tortuga in East End, Grand Cayman on Sunday. 

Her Bridging the Islands adventure started from Little Cayman early Saturday and ended an amazing 40 hours, 41 minutes later after defying shark encounters, jellyfish stings, severe dehydration, weight loss and exhaustion she was able to wobble out of the water and wave in triumph as hundreds cheered her epic journey.  

It beat the previous record by four miles. She was taken to the hospital for tests and to help her recover in time to swim this Saturday’s Flowers One Mile Sea Swim.  

The shark presence was always going to be a danger. Palfrey, 48, dispensed with a shark cage and used electric shark shields which repel them but even then they did not stop the predators taking a frightening interest. Celebrated fisherman Charles Ebanks even had to kill three with a machete.  

The Palfrey swim was the inspiration of Frank Flowers and his daughter Dara Flowers-Burke who had organised it for a year and provided all the resources and found the sponsors and helpers to make it possible. They were advised by open swim expert Steven Munatones and Penny’s husband Chris, who is also an ultra-distance swimmer.  

It was part of the buildup to the Flowers Swim from Royal Palms, which will see over 800 entrants, including Penny and Chris, and nobody can deny that this was a massive promotional boost.  

Dara said the Flowers Group is grateful to everyone who supported Palfrey’s endeavour, particularly Rod McDowall of Red Sail Sports who provided the boats.  

Mr. Scotland said: “It is phenomenal for us to be put in the record books like this. It will again put Cayman on the map in terms of sports tourism. I want to thank all the organisers, in particular Mr. Flowers for what he’s done for years for open water swimming. And to Penny herself for what is a super-human feat. I hope she’s OK now. It is great to see all this community support.  

“This support is down to the power of the media, Radio Cayman and all the media houses giving regular updates as she swam. As far as the government is concerned, we will honour her in some way in recognition of this achievement.  

“All the big sporting events we’ve had here in the past few years have come off really well. The facilities, the infrastructure and organisation here shows that we have to exploit that, and this one in particular augurs well for open water swimming.  

“I was just speaking to one of the kayakers who was talking about bringing other events here. Penny Palfrey coming here and doing this swim does a lot for Cayman.”