Triple Crossing Of Catalina Channel Aborted

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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