It took just about an hour, but Silverdale’s Bruce Waterbury and his daughter, Kristi Balant, swam from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco last Sunday.

“We had a fantastic time,” said Waterbury. “We both finished easily but we didn’t push ourselves too much due to the uncertainty of everything.”

The mile and a half swim in choppy, cold water, under a cloudy sky, was a dad-daughter birthday adventure for the pair who like to celebrate by doing events together.

Waterbury, who turned 55 last week, and Kristi, who turned 28, decided to do the swim six months ago to made the swim along with about 100 others. Swims from Alcatraz are organized a couple of times a year with spotters helping swimmers. The dad-daughter duo began training in April by swimming in local Kitsap County lakes.

Waterbury finished the swim from Alcatraz in 43.58. And Kristi swam it in 38.23.

Of the swim, Waterbury said they even had time for sight-seeing.

“We even stopped while swimming to just look and admire the sights…Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco skyline,” Waterbury said, after the swim. “But we both finished in the top half of swimmers.”

Waterbury said they were a bit surprised by that because they’d only been training for a few months.

“We’ve probably have swam less than 40 times during that period,” he said. “Hard core swimmers swim about five times a week, year after year.”

And right after the swim, the two biked four miles to the Golden Gate Bridge and then biked back so they could get to the airport for their trip home.

On Friday and Saturday, they made a tour of the Alcatraz prison, “rode on the outside of the trolly cars, saw the sights, ate at fine restaurants, drank too much, stayed out too late…it was a perfect father/daughter trip,” Waterbury said.

“I was getting worried that I was doing too much walking, staying up late and getting up early,” he said. “I was afraid I would not have the energy for the swim. But I did and wasn’t even sore after the event.”

Balant was a competitive swimmer in high school when she attended Central Kitsap High. She was a member of the Olympic Aquatic Club and shared lanes with Nathan Adrian. She made the swim with no problems and returned to Silverdale Sunday to get ready to move to Germany where she has been assigned to a base at Wiesbaden. She works for the Department of Defense.

As for Waterbury, he’s getting ready for his next challenge. He’s hoping to get his leg muscles ready to dunk a basketball.

And they’re both thinking about what their next adventure will be.