Veteran long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad will take on time and Mother Nature when she jumps into the Florida Straits on Sunday to begin what would be a world record swim from Cuba to Florida.
The 61-year-old American tried the gruelling 166 km journey in 1978 when she was 28, but failed in the face of winds and eight-foot waves that weather forecasters say should not be a factor this time.
Nyad was scheduled to leave from Havana on Sunday evening, when the sea was expected to be smooth and windless, with hopes of getting to Key West in about 60 hours.
The swim has been done before, by Australian Susan Maroney in May 1997, but Nyad's claim to a world record will be that unlike Maroney, she is doing it without a shark cage in the strait's warm, shark-infested waters.
Maroney was only 22, but Nyad said her comparatively advanced age is one of the reasons she will try the swim.
"I retired when I should have, when I was young, and a couple of years ago, turning 60, I didn't want to feel old yet. I started thinking 'what if I went back, what if I went back to the elusive dream of Cuba," she said at a news conference at Marina Hemingway, where she will begin her record attempt.
She hopes the swim will help people her age and older realize they still can accomplish many things.
"I want to be there to say we have many, many years of vitality and strength and service left in us," she said.
Nyad also wants her effort to help U.S. relations with Cuba. As someone who was raised in South Florida, she has had a lifelong fascination with that topic.
In a show of solidarity, a small fleet of Cuban boats will accompany her briefly at her departure.
"I hope my little swim is going to be a small symbol of the connection that we all know is coming very soon," said Nyad.
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