Penny Palfrey Sets Open Water World Record in 40 Hour Swim

By Steven Munatones, Swimming World open water correspondent

CAYMAN ISLANDS, June 15. PENNY Palfrey, one of the most adventurous marathon swimmers of modern times, swam 68 miles between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. She started on Friday morning and finished late on Saturday night after spending 40 hours and 41 minutes in the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean.

Palfrey was guided to the Grand Cayman shoreline by the lights of fire trucks and hundreds of local people who had come out to see this difficult solo swim. She faced a largely swollen tongue and painfully parched lips, large ocean swells up to 8 feet, jellyfish, 4 oceanic white tip sharks, pilot whales and strong currents along the way to cap off her impressive channel swimming career.

Prior to this unprecedented swim, Palfrey had completed the English Channel (twice), the Catalina Channel, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Cook Strait, the Molokai Channel, the Maui Channel, the Alenuihaha Channel (Hawaii-to-Maui) and the Santa Barbara Channel.

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