An American actress and swimming instructor is expected to complete the challenge of a lifetime today — by swimming around the island.

Sarah Eismann, from New York, set out on the 65km swim at sunrise yesterday and said she hoped to complete her voyage in St George’s today after up to 40 hours in the water.

Ms Eismann said: “I wanted to do Bermuda because it’s beautiful and the people are amazing.

“I also wanted to do it on my birthday — I turn 40 on June 21 — and most of the places around me in New York are still cold.

“Here in Bermuda it’s warm and lovely. I know people who have been down here and said it was fabulous.”

Ms Eismann’s online tracker showed she had completed 28.1km, and was south of Church Road, Southampton at 8.30 last night.

Ms Eismann said the feat is the culmination of her Swimming for Shakespeare campaign, which she launched last year to support Shakespeare Behind Bars — a charity that helps prison inmates through theatre.

She said: “Shakespeare Behind Bars work with populations in prisons and — just using Shakespeare — have been able to reduce recidivism rates from 65 per cent to 5 per cent.”

Ms Eismann said she has completed swims in the continental US, Hawaii, Barbados and Bermuda since she launched the campaign last June.

She said: “My first swim was across Lake Tahoe in the first week of August.

“I have since done the Maui Challenge, which is ten miles, and a few smaller swims.

“I did the Escape from Alcatraz, I did the Waikiki Rough Water and the O’ahu North Shore 5K, but this is the longest swim, both in miles and time.”

Ms Eismann took on the annual Round the Sound swim in Bermuda last October and completed a 39km “practice swim” on June 1.

The campaign was recently featured in The New York Times in a story focused on ordinary people who had set themselves gruelling fitness tests.

www.saraheismann.com/s4s