Fans and interested swimmers can follow Penny Palfrey on her audacious swim across the 72-mile Kaieiewaho Channel next week.

Based on the wind conditions, it looks like she is going to push off from the rough and wild Kaena Point on Oahu on Tuesday afternoon on November 9th.

For fans in America, they can text SWIM to 32862 for real-time updates from her boat. For fans outside America, they can follow @swimopenwater on Twitter.

These texts and tweets will then be repurposed as Facebook updates by her friends around the world which will then be shared via emails and telephone conversations.

Communications open water style in the early 21st century. Gotta love the immediacy of it…as long as the signal remains strong in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Copyright © 2010 by Steven Munatones