Marathon woman defies the sharks in 103-mile swim

YORKSHIRE-BORN marathon swimmer Penny Palfrey set out on a record bid yesterday to cross the Straits of Florida, a 103-mile unassisted swim testing the limits of human endurance.

Slathered with sunblock and lubricant, Ms Palfrey bade farewell to onlookers, dived headfirst into the bathwater-warm seas off Havana, Cuba, and began stroking slowly northward. She thinks it will take her 40 to 50 hours to make the crossing.

The British-Australian dual citizen was born in Scarborough and started swimming aged nine, representing Britain before migrating to Australia aged 19.

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In the swim, she will have to fight through physical and mental fatigue while fending off dehydration, hypothermia and dangerous marine life.

If the 49-year-old mother and grandmother succeeds, she will go in the record books as the first woman to swim the Straits of Florida without a shark cage. Instead she is relying on equipment about her with an electrical field to deter the predators.

She is wearing a sporting swimsuit instead of a wetsuit, and plans to put on a Lycra bodysuit that provides cover down to the wrists and ankles whenever jellyfish may be a threat. That is particularly the case at night, according to her support team of navigators, handlers, kayakers and medical personnel escorting her.

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