Rod McDowall, Operations Manager of Red Sail Sports, is arranging for a flotilla of boats to escort Penny Palfrey from Little Cayman Island (West End Lighthouse) to her expected finish on Grand Cayman Island at Morritts Tortuga on the East End on June 9th.
The scope and level of planning and preparation for Penny’s Bridging The Cayman Islands is mind-boggling. She has helicopters, escorts boats, Zodiacs, Shark Shields and an international crew who will be attending to her needs and focusing on her safety in waters.
The 46-member crew of experienced watermen, augmented by a top-notch medical team with equipment to handle every emergency and social media experts, will be alongside Penny the whole way or supporting from onshore.
The team consists of local mariners, many of whom also cut their teeth from Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, all over the Caribbean, Hawaii and California. Months and months of detailed planning and discussions of contingency plans were documented with a team of individuals committed to help Penny realize her dream of swimming from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman, a tough 67.26-mile channel filled with every kind of danger and marine possibility.
“We will use the 65-foot Carib Princess, a large tender owned by Adrien Briggs and Attlee Bodden. We will take out the last couple of rows of seats so we can store the kayaks and paddle boards for Penny’s swim. We will also need spare fuel supplies, coolers and other items. There will be bundles of space and ideal photo opportunities from the upper deck. This vessel is able to idle much slower – at 2 knots – and mats can be laid on all the seats for sleeping. There is plenty of shade which is much more functional in the long run, especially over the 30-40 hours that we expect Penny to be in the water.
The other escort boat, the 65-foot Cayman Time, also owned by Adrien Briggs, will plot and lead the course. The Cayman Time also has a 16-foot Zodiac onboard that will be augmented by another 18-foot Zodiac and Carib Princess that will both stay close to Penny as she swims alongside the kayakers.”
The media will be alerted to Penny’s progress from start to finish via all the modern technologies – live audio feeds via satellite phone, SPOT GPS units, tweets, Facebook updates and regular radio broadcasts.
And everyone is counting on Penny crawling up the Grand Cayman shoreline in dramatic fashion to culminate their collective efforts. Her finish is expected to be anywhere from 12 noon to 7 pm on June 10th.
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