MDI woman makes second attempt at swimming around the island

MOUNT DESERT ISLAND, Maine (WABI) - A woman in Bar Harbor is attempting for the second time to become the first woman to swim around Mount Desert Island

Puranjot Kaur will leave from Hadley Point Tuesday night just before eight o’clock to make the 44 mile swim.

The swim is a fundraiser for Open Table MDI, the non-profit she and her husband Mahandeva Singh founded to fight food insecurity on the island.

This will be the second attempt at the milestone swim for Kaur. Last year she made it almost halfway before running into a strong headwind, and started to experience hypothermia before leaving the water.

She says there was never any doubt that she would be trying the swim again.

”There’s just this really amazing thing that happens when you’re swimming for that length of time, and everything else around you kind of drops away. Even though you’re aware of whats happening, and you’re interacting with your team and your kayakers, there’s something that shifts, either physiologically or mentally or whatever, where you just kind of drop into this different state, and it’s really quite meditative and quite beautiful.”

The swim around Mount Desert Island will take approximately 24 hours.

You can follow Puranjot’s progress online here.