Diana Nyad is at it again and this time, she may actually do it.
Nyad embarked on another attempt to swim to Florida from Cuba this past week and is already further along than she’s ever been- 49 miles.
The 62-year-old failed to make the record breaking journey in August and pulled out due to an asthma attack, not even making it to 30 hours.
Nyad had also attempted the record-breaking swim back in 1978 when she swam inside of a shark cage but only made it a little over 40 hours before calling it quits.
After her failed attempt in August, she suggested there wouldn’t be another, but shocked the world when she headed back to Cuba this week to try again.
“I knew I was in the best condition of my life,” she reportedly said before the swim. “What happened in August was a 29-hour training swim. The water now is still warm. The conditions make this swim possible.”
At about 6 p.m. Friday, the Los Angeles woman left the Hemingway Marina in Havana, and headed for Florida.
Only halfway through her 103 mile journey, Nyad, who is swimming without a cage in shark infested waters, has already experienced some marine life obstacles.
According to reports, Nyad took a Portuguese Man o’ War sting to the face. It stung her face and body and forced her out of the water. She received treatment and soon went back to swimming. But because she stopped to receive medical treatment, the rules say she is now going for a record staged swim rather than a non-stop swim.
According to the Associated Press, along her way she also crossed paths with barracudas, 10 pilot whales and an Oceanic white tipped shark that was “shooed off” by a diver, one of three in the water, protecting Nyad.
If you want to follow her, Nyad’s support team is updating her status on social networks and her blog as she continues on her journey. Her latest update reads, “Diana swam continuously through a pitch-black night as her kayakers counted every stroke, monitoring each slap of the water as they watched her. A crescent moon rose just after 5am. Handler Christi Barli replenished Diana’s food supply from Sunluver. We await the light of dawn.”
