Diana Nyad, a 62-year-old marathon swimmer from Los Angeles, Calif. is attempting to make history as she swims from Havana, Cuba to Florida, a distance of 103 miles, in what she calls the Xtreme Dream. Though Nyad's in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, her support team is sharing updates from her journey on Twitter and her blog.
Nyad's already encountered a storm and several jellyfish stings, though she keeps stroking at a strong pace, according to the team accompanying her who are updating her Twitter and blog.
The most recent blog post from this morning describes the conditions of her swim:
"We had quite a night. The weather was really ugly. All crew members safe. As of this morning, the weather is clear with light winds out of the SE. Seas are calm and Diana is swimming strong at 50 strokes per minute and has swum 33.81 statute miles. There have been no jellyfish sightings our experts report. Beautiful out!"
Her tweets include similar details from the experience:
This swim is five English Channels, with sharks and box jellies added.— Diana Nyad (@diananyad) August 19, 2012
A runner struck with sharp pain can stop, sit down and stretch. A marathon swimmer can’t do that. ^MR— Diana Nyad (@diananyad) August 19, 2012
At 8pm EDT "all hell broke loose here." Out of nowhere, a squall "blew up very quick." blowing Diana off course ^AdC diananyad.com/blog/squall— Diana Nyad (@diananyad) August 20, 2012
Her website DianaNyad.com also includes a map of where she is in her swim between Cuba and Florida:
Nyad first attempted the distance from Cuba to the U.S. three decades ago when she was 29. Extreme weather on the course already teaming with sharks, jellyfish and pollution, left her heading toward Texas, rather than Florida.