GPS tracking courtesy of Evan Morrison, Catalina Channel, California.

Robert Palmese had raised the money, recruited the crew, trained the miles, and planned for the first three-way crossing of the Catalina Channel.

But he had not planned for a shoulder injury (bicep tendonitis) before his estimated 36+ hour attempt.

An hour from Catalina Island, his injury started to bother him. “I started having issues after just an hour. [I] tried to adjust my stroke, but I made the decision that it would be more damaging to continue trying [to] swim.”

He eventually aborted his attempt in 2 hours 39 minutes after swimming 7.4 km.

Like the English Channel that saw several unsuccessful attempts at a three-way crossing before Jon Erikson‘s first success at a triple crossing, the Catalina Channel appears to also have to go through this evolution.

In fact, Palmese is still a university student and has plenty of time to attempt and achieve his goal.

As a point of reference, Erikson first swam the English Channel in 11 hours 23 minutes in 1969; he did his first two-way crossing of the English Channel in 1979, and later added two more double-crossings in 1980 before he became the first person to accomplish a three-way English Channel crossing in 1981 with a historic 38 hour 27 minute effort.

Time is certainly on Palmese’s side.

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