By Prior Beharry
FOUR swimmers are going to attempt to swim from Tobago to Trinidad tomorrow.
William Carr, Patrick Lee Loy, Roger Watts and John Procope will be leaving from Natural Palm Beach, off Hampden Road just after 3 am on Saturday.
They will attempt to swim to the north coast of Trinidad which is approximately 45 kilometres away.
Experience swim coach Edward Tuberoso will lead them out with a kayak and there will be two support vessels and a Coast Guard Interceptor which be accompanying the swimmers.
The support boats include Glady McCall operated by Captain Mike Toussaint while Tropicbird will have skipper Bertrand Bhikarry at the helm.
The swimmers will each have a swim buoy affixed with a blinking safety light.
The journey is expected to take between 12 to 15 hours and the closest landing point could be Grand Riviere on Trinidad’s northeastern coast.
No one has ever accomplished this although former president of the Public Service Association and then minority leader in the Tobago House of Assembly Watson Duke had landed in Trinidad after leaving Tobago in 2017, he jumped on board one of his support boats and was even aided by jet skis.
Duke was protesting the unreliable ferry service between the two islands.
The swimmers will not be aided but will be given water and food by the support staff.
They have been training for some time now with Carr even competing in a number of open water events in the past few months including Central American and Caribbean Swimming Federation (CCCAN) in Barbados in July.
Carr, Lee Low and Watts are members of the Trinity Masters Swim Club whose President Gordon Borde attempted the feat in 2013 along with Ferdinand and Tony Levitt but were unable to make it as they drifted away in the current.
