One down, one to go

Distance swimmer Penny Palfrey smashed the record by six
seconds swimming from Cayman Brac to Little Cayman when she crossed the
five-mile wide Bogue channel in 1:53:28 on Monday, 6 June. 

She beat the record set two months ago by Steven Munatones
and Lexie Kelly. 

Next on the agenda is a nearly 68-mile swim from Little
Cayman to Grand Cayman, scheduled to start early Thursday, 9 June. 

Rain wasn’t a factor 

Monday’s swim started at 12.10pm on Monday, a little
later than scheduled as the swimmer and her support crew waited for a rain
storm to pass.

Mr. Munatones said the rain was not a major factor in the
swim: “We had a little bit of weather but that was fine. The rain helped iron
out the ocean.

“The conditions were good… It went really well,” said Mr.
Munatones, a marathon swimmer and coach, who was on one of the support boats
accompanying Ms Palfrey.

According to Mr. Munatones, who was relaying regular Twitter
updates, the British/Australian swimmer was swimming at 82 strokes a minute.

He said she was swimming “conservatively”, so she could save
her energy for the bigger part of her Bridging the Cayman Islands challenge
Thursday when she will attempt to swim from Little Cayman to East End in Grand
Cayman.

“She’s tired – a little more tired than she had probably
hoped,” Mr. Munatones said by phone shortly after Ms Palfrey completed the swim
between the Sister Islands on Monday.

Kayak with shark shield

Two kayaks – one with a shield to repel sharks – accompanied
Ms Palfrey during her swim. There were also two escort boats.

Mr. Munatones, along with Flowers Sea Swim coordinator Ms
Kelly, set the previous record of 1:53:34 minutes when they crossed between the
Sister Islands in April. They had broken a record set in 1987 by Jeff Miller,
who swam the route in 2:36.

Mr. Miller swam a slightly longer route.

After Mr. Miller set the record, no one else attempted the
swim until last year, when two young Cayman Brackers, Felix Ebanks and Matthew McKinley,
decided to give it a go and invited a few people along with them. Seven
swimmers completed the swim last year and most of them decided to attempt it
again this year, the day after Mr. Munatones and Ms Kelly did their swim. On 17
April, 12 swimmers made the crossing and Governor Duncan Taylor was the first
ashore in 2:59:00.

For her longer swim Thursday, if all goes according to plan
and sea and weather conditions allow her to start as scheduled at 3am, the only
thing that could stop her from completing the record-breaking swim would be
marine life, Mr. Munatones said.

Last year she tried twice to swim a longer distance between
two Hawaiian islands but both times her efforts were scuppered when she was
stung by Portuguese Man O’War jellyfish.