Diana Nyad Fulfills Dream Cuba-to-Florida swim
Just before 2.00pm EST today American long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, 64, closed in on her long time quest to cross the Florida Straits and in doing so she became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.
This was the fifth time she has made the attempt and she covered the 110.36 miles in an approximate time of 53-54 hours. The attempt saw Nyad use a protective silicone mask to better protect her from potentially deadly box jellyfish that forced her to end one of two attempted crossings last year.
The treacherous Florida Straits has been conquered only once, by Australian Susie Maroney, who used a protective cage at age 22 during a 1997 swim. The cage glided on ocean currents and enabled Maroney to make the journey in just 25 hours.
Nyad’s fifth attempt to make the crossing comes 35 years after she made her first go at it aged 28 in 1978, when she gave up after covering 76 miles in 42 hours, with the aid that time of a shark cage.
Nyad departed on Saturday morning accompanied by five support boats that also provided her with food and water along the way and shortly before 2pm today she walked onto the beach at Key West, Florida to complete her life long dream.
