Since Penny Palfrey has set foot in the Cayman Islands, it has been a whirlwind of activities. She has met dignitaries, plotted her most ambitious marathon swim of her career, given media interviews and continued her taper.

This morning, she swam 5 miles from Cayman Brac to Little Cayman Island as the first leg of her Bridging The Cayman Island. Swimming at a brisk 82 strokes per minutes, she was sandwiched between her kayakers, Jeff Kozlovich of Honolulu and Richard Clifford of New York, and 2 Department of Environment escort boats.

Up and down the 1-2 foot surface chop, Penny used her open water swimming experience to body surf down the face of the larger surface chop. Despite swimming conservatively, she broke the existing record of 1:53:34…by a mere 6 seconds.

Cutting it close, Penny came out of the beautifully blue warm ocean smiling…and strategizing for her 68-mile swim later this week.

“I just had a great swim with lots of support. I want to thank Mr. Flowers. It was a little bumpy and I finished by crossing over a turtle over the beautiful coral reef near the finish.”

Photos: Image by Spike

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