Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad is making her fourth attempt at completing the 103-mile, Cuba-to-Florida marathon swim that has eluded her in her 62 years. Nyad has thus far suffered several jellyfish stings—which ended her previous attempt last fall—but team members tweeted that she was plowing along steadily this morning, reports the AP. "Diana is swimming backstroke right now leading with the cap-covered part of her head to minimize contact," said one tweet. Sharks are also a concern, as are dangerous currents and weather shifts. Nyad would be the first to complete the swim without the assistance of a cage or a wetsuit.
Before jumping into the waters off Havana yesterday afternoon, Nyad waxed poetic about the journey. "I do enjoy, when I stop in the middle of the night and I see the stars, you start thinking out there," she said. "It becomes very metaphysical. ... You're tired and you've been having this metronomic stroke taking you into a different world, all of a sudden you're out there and you're thinking about the meaning of life and the grandeur of the universe and the mystery of it all." (More Diana Nyad stories.)
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