http://www.theoceans.net/story/61YearOldGrandfatherFor35MileSwimJul42004.shtml

This old guy did it in 14 hours, which I thought would have been shorter
given the fact that he could have ridden a current (the same ones that
alledgedly had taken some divers to Cuba) most of the way.

By comparison, the record swim across the British Channel (22 miles) was
7 hrs and 17 minutes.  Does that mean we could find better drift dives
by jumping into the British Channel?  :-)

The British Channel record was at the rate of alightly less than 20
minutes per mile, which is clearly untenable at a static pool or non-
current swims.  Not sure what the USMC "cable records" are and if they
were done in pools or still open water.  But the US national record
for 1 mile is nearly 21 minutes.

http://www.usms.org/longdist/ldrecords.php

Ooops. Never mind.  The 2-mile record was less than 20 minutes per
mile.  :-)

Wonder how long it might take one to swim the Cozumel Cancun route
with fins.

Just a bit of idle speculation here.

-- Bob.