The International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame placed Ray Gandy‘s unprecedented swim around Conanicut Island in Rhode Island in its historic archives.

On July 2nd, Ray began his 41.2-mile swim at Potter’s Cove and finished his circumnavigation around Conanicut Island 20 hours and 17 minutes later. The water temperature ranged from 63°F (17.2°C) to 69°F (21.1°C) as he not only became the first person to do one – and two – circumnavigations around Conanicut.

Ray described his swim to the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, “The plan was to generally follow the tide down and up the sides of the island. There were times I swam with the tide and other times I did not. The first three hours we hit a very difficult 15-knot head wind with three-foot head seas between the Dumplings and Beavertail. Then, near the end, on Saturday morning, coming south after passing Conanicut Point, we had to buck a current of about half a knot and a head wind of nearly 10 knots. Having been in the water for over 18 hours, the last two hours were very tough swimming into the current and wind.”

Ray was well-fed and hydrated as he quickly took various combinations of the following every 30 minutes: Hammer’s Perpetuem, Hammer Gel, bananas, Gatorade, coffee, doughnuts, hot chocolate, water, peaches and peanut M&Ms. “My feeds lasted generally 30 seconds and I used a mouthwash rinse after each feed to prevent any mouth or tongue issues along the way. I averaged around 400 to 500 calories per hour – adding up to around 10,000 calories consumed.”

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