Fourth time lucky! 62-year-old American woman begins latest attempt to swim 103 miles from Cuba to Florida
- Diana Nyad hopes to set a record by swimming the Florida strait without any protection from sharks
- The journey, from Havana to the Florida Keys, is 103 miles (166 kilometers) and Nyad expects it will take 60 hours
- A 50-person support team including navigators, weather gurus and a shark handler will accompanying Nyad on five vessels
Endurance athlete Diana Nyad launched another bid on Saturday to set an open-water record by swimming 103 miles (166 kilometers) from Havana to the Florida Keys without a protective shark cage.
Under a blazing afternoon sun at the Hemingway Marina in the Cuban capital, Nyad adjusted her cap and goggles, pointed to the open water, blew a bugle and cried: 'Adios amigos! Courage!' Then she leaped in feet first and stroked out toward her supportboat.
Less than a week before she turns 63-years-old, the Los Angeles woman is attempting a feat that even the fittest of human beings would find daunting. It's a dream that has taken three years of marathon open-water training swims and seen multiple aborted attempts at the crossing.
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Adios: U.S. swimmer Diana Nyad jumps into the water in Havana, Cuba on Saturday in a bid to set an open-water record by swimming from Havana to the Florida Keys without a protective shark cage
Splashing start: The 62-year-old endurance athlete has tried three times to swim the route, once with a protective cage and twice without
In the summer of 2010, unfavorable weather kept her from even setting out. Last year, first a debilitating asthma attack and then painful, dangerous stings from box jellyfish forced her from the water on two separate attempts.
This time Nyad is banking on a custom-made swimsuit to protect her from the jellyfish. It covers her head-to-toe with a pantyhose face and holes only for the eyes, nose and mouth.
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It's non-buoyant but still creates drag in the water, so she hopes to don it only at night when jellyfish are more likely to rise to the surface.
'You have to learn from your mistakes. You don't do it the first time,' Nyad said at a news conference, deeply tanned with goggle-rings around her eyes. 'We need some luck, but we do feel like we've solved all the problems.'
Team Nyad: Supporters gather around Diana Nyad as she prepares for her 103 mile swim
On her second try last summer to swim without a cage, her third total attempt, Nyad lasted 41 hours before calling it quits. She estimated it will take at least 60 hours to complete the swim to the Keys, and said the Straits of Florida were forecast to remain calm in the coming days.
Go-time had been planned for Sunday around dawn, but shifting weather forecasts prompted a last-minute change. The water north of Havana was slightly choppy on Saturday, but expected to quiet down.
'This isn't perfect. You can go out and see some little whitecaps,' Nyad said. 'But I feel strong in the beginning, so why not get a few hours out and tonight it's going to calm.'
Hoping: Diana Nyad last attempted the Cuba-Florida swim in 2011, she lasted 41 hours before calling it quits
A member of Nyad's team posted a message on her blog late Saturday saying one of her shark divers received a painful jellyfish sting, but said nothing about the swimmer herself being stung.
An online tracker hosted on Nyad's website showed her charting an initial course west-northwest from Havana, presumably with the goal of entering into the Gulf Stream current at a favorable point.
An on board navigator constantly checks conditions and re-calibrates her bearings every 15 minutes, Nyad said earlier.
'Instead of staying on the couch for a lifetime... be fiercely bold, and go out and chase your dreams'
In June, Australian endurance swimmer Penny Palfrey made it 79 miles of the way before throwing in the towel in the face of strong currents.
A fiercely driven competitor, Nyad acknowledged it was hard to watch Palfrey come close to snatching away her long-held goal.
'If she had succeeded I would have congratulated her, because I know how difficult it is, more than anybody. And after all, this is not my ocean,' Nyad said. 'But it is my dream... Frankly - how can I lie? - I'm glad that I still have the chance to be first.'
Nyad first tried to cross the Straits of Florida in 1978 as a 28-year-old, but fell short.
Live the dream: Diana Nyad, resting before beginning her arduous swim, says she has to chase her dream
For that attempt Nyad swam inside a steel cage, which she said not only protects from sharks and softens the waves but even creates a current that propels a swimmer forward.
On her third bid at a cageless swim, a 50-person support team including navigators, weather gurus and a shark handler from Australia were accompanying Nyad on five vessels. She planned to take short, periodic breaks for rest and nourishment.
Support: A 50-person support team, including navigators, weather gurus and a shark handler, will accompany Diana Nyad on five vessels. She plans to take short, periodic breaks for rest and nourishment
In lieu of a cage, a kayaker will paddle alongside dangling an apparatus in the water that creates an electrical field designed to repel sharks. A team of shark handlers will carefully scan the surrounding waters from the roof of her main support boat, ready to dive in and gently nudge away any predators that make it through the shield.
Nyad confessed to sleeping poorly the night before and to feeling nerves, in addition to confidence, as she set out: 'My heart is going to beat fast because this is history in front of me.'
After falling short in the past she has vowed not to try again, but each time the siren call of the Straits proved too great.
Asked whether she would make another attempt if the weather, currents and marine life all cooperate but she is physically not up to the task, Nyad did not categorically rule out a fourth try.
But she suggested that even she has a limit.
So long: U.S. swimmer Diana Nyad sets out from the Ernest Hemingway Nautical Club in Havana on her way to Florida
'Sitting here, I can't address that,' Nyad said. 'I have to say, it's too much. I've asked too many people to put in too much. We know what we're doing. This has to be it. It just has to be.'
Nyad set a world mark for open-water swimming without a wetsuit in 1979 by crossing 102 miles from the Bahamas to Florida.
A writer, journalist and motivational speaker, she said she hopes to inspire people of all ages to live active lives.
'Instead of staying on the couch for a lifetime and letting this precious time go by, why not be bold?' she said. 'Be fiercely bold, and go out and chase your dreams.'
VIDEO: Nyad hopes the route will become the 'next English Channel'...
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