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Diana Nyad, blown off course by storms, back on track

Diana Nyad was stung by jellyfish and battered by storms Sunday. But three days into her Cuba-to-Florida swim, Diana Nyad is swimming at 50 strokes per minute.

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AP Photo/Diana Nyad via the Florida Keys News Bureau, Christi Barli
Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad swims in the Florida Straits between Cuba and the Florida Keys Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012. Nyad is endeavoring to become the first swimmer to transit the Florida Straits from Cuba to the Keys without a shark cage.
  • By Staff Associated Press

| Havana

Swimmer Diana Nyad was back on track and doing well Monday after a night of storms and jellyfish stings roughed up her bid for a record swim from Cuba to Florida.

Nyad, who turns 63 Wednesday, is making her third attempt since last summer to become the first person to swim across the Straits of Florida without a shark cage. She also made a failed try with a cage in 1978.

Nyad's operations manager Mark Sollinger told the NBC "Today" show that things couldn't be better after the sun rose on her third day in the water. She left Havana on Saturday headed for the Florida Keys.

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She's accompanied by a support team in boats. They tweeted Sunday night that a storm blew Nyad off course temporarily and that "all hell broke loose" in the squall. Nyad also suffered jellyfish stings.

But by morning, Nyad was swimming a strong 50 strokes per minute, Sollinger said on NBC by phone from a boat shadowing Nyad.

"Her stroke looks good and we're moving in the right direction," he said.

Australian Susie Maroney successfully swam the Straits in 1997, but she used a cage. This June another Australian, Penny Palfrey, made it 79 miles toward Florida without a cage before strong currents forced her to abandon the attempt.

Nyad has already endured jellyfish stings on the current attempt. Stings forced her to cut short her second of two attempts last year as toxins built up in her system.

A kayak-borne apparatus shadowing Nyad helps keep sharks at bay by generating a faint electric field that is not noticeable to humans. A team of handlers is always on alert to dive in and distract any sharks that make it through.

Nyad has been training for three years and is in peak shape, according to friend and trainer Bonnie Stoll.

The team expects Nyad will take at least 60 hours to complete the swim, meaning she would arrive in the Florida Keys sometime Tuesday.

She takes periodic short breaks to rest, hydrate and eat high-energy foods like peanut butter.

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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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