A P.E.I. woman swam across the Northumberland Strait Thursday, becoming the first person to do so in more than a decade.

Kristin Roe, a former competitive swimmer who works at the University of Prince Edward Island, reached P.E.I. around 1:30 p.m. ADT, completing the swim from New Brunswick in just under eight hours.

Kristin Roe prepares for her swim before starting out on Thursday morning.
Kristin Roe prepares for her swim before starting out on Thursday morning.

She made the trip to raise money for people with HIV/AIDS.

Roe, 25, stepped into the water at about at 5:45 a.m. and initially made faster time than expected as a favourable wind shaved more than 10 kilometres off her planned route.

She had intended a V-shaped, 25-kilometre journey. But a wind blowing against the tide allowed her to make a beeline of about 14 kilometres across the strait toward her original goal, the foot of the Confederation Bridge on P.E.I.'s shore.




At about 11:30 a.m., scarcely more than a kilometre from shore, the tide turned against Roe. What had been looking like a noon arrival was pushed further and further back and she aimed for Borden Harbour.

Around 1 p.m., she gave up on the idea of swimming into the harbour and began swimming straight for shore.

She finished at the foot of some cliffs east of Borden, with supporters cheering her arrival from the clifftops.

After making landfall, Roe stood unsteadily on the shore briefly, then climbed onto the Zodiac raft that had accompanied her on her swim. The boat took her to Borden Harbour, where she made a ceremonial swim to shore.

"I'm excited that I finished but those last couple of hours were very, very, frustrating," Roe said upon making the shore.

"There were some negative thoughts for a while. I just kept trying to look in the distance. I found it was discouraging me by looking at the bridge. I just tried to look straight ahead."

Tongue swollen but spirits high as trip neared end

Roe's team members said she swam strongly throughout the journey, maintaining almost the same stroke rate from start to finish.

They said that by shortly after noon, she began to complain more of cold, nausea and a swollen tongue.

However, her spirits remained high, her team members said.

She laughed and joked with the crew in the support boat and had earlier taken time to shout words into a cellphone to family members.

A rain squall delayed the start of the swim, planned for 5 a.m. ADT, by 45 minutes, but Roe more than made up the time.

Truckers tooted horns to cheer on Roe

Roe had company in the water. Long-distance swimmer Jason Collins, part of Roe's support team, swam alongside her for 40 minutes.

Roe also got encouragement from truckers who blew their horns as they crossed the Confederation Bridge.

Roe made the swim in support of people with HIV/AIDS, and hoped to raise $20,000. Half of that was to go to people on P.E.I. and the other half to the Stephen Lewis Foundation for support of people in Africa.

Several swimmers have crossed the strait, starting in 1951 with Evelyn Henry. Her daughter Andrea Brown did it in 1989. Barb McNeill, who has been giving Roe advice, swam the strait in 1987.