US endurance swimmer Diana Nyad US endurance swimmer Diana Nyad was just hours away Monday from realizing her lifetime quest to become the first person to cross from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage .
At age 64 and on her fifth attempt, Nyad broke Penny Palfrey\'s 2012 distance record late Sunday, swimming farther than anyone before on the treacherous course without protection.
The swimmer was making her approach to Key West at 5:00 am (0900 GMT) after 44 hours in the water.
She was on course to swim 112 statute miles -- 35 more miles than anyone ever before, according to her team.
She will then have to travel five more miles to Smather\'s Beach in Key West.
\"Local knowledge from teammates tells us it is an ideal landing spot for Diana,\" navigator John Bartlett said on Nyad\'s website.
Her team expected the landing to take place between 4:00 and 6:00 pm (2000-2200 GMT).
\"During this time, Diana has stopped numerous times to tread water trying to restore herself. We don\'t know how strong she is swimming at this point, but we\'ll get an update soon,\" Bartlett said, stressing that usually seeing the sun rise over the water helps boost Nyad\'s morale.
\"The greatest variable here is the extension of human endurance; how long will it take her to make those last 100 strokes at the end, and all the ones from here to then?\"
In a display of endurance and spirit, Nyad had actually increased her average speed to 1.76 miles per hour Sunday after more than 24 hours in the water.
Her team said Nyad was riding swells of up to five feet (1.5 meters) but was also getting a push from the current.
Nyad set off from Cuba Saturday in what she said would be her final bid to swim across the perilous Florida Straits without the protection of a shark cage, hoping to make the roughly 106-mile trek in 80 hours.
This time, she will be wearing a specially designed prosthetic face mask to protect herself from jellyfish stings, along with a full-body suit, gloves and shoes.
A year ago, Nyad called off her fourth bid to cross the stretch after battling lightning storms and swarms of jellyfish for more than two days.
Her first attempt was in 1978, when she was 28.
Nyad set an open sea record for both men and women by swimming from the Bahamas to the Florida Keys in 1979 -- a journey that is about the same distance as the Cuba-Florida swim, but which she has described as far less dangerous.
At a news conference Friday, the veteran swimmer expressed confidence that she would persevere this time around.
She said her dream of 35 years also sought to bring communist Cuba and the United States -- which have been at odds for decades -- closer together.
Nyad is accompanied by a 36-member team and several yachts and kayaks.
Australian Susan Maroney is the first and only person who has managed to swim across the Florida Straits. Protected by a shark cage, she did so in 1997 when she was 22.
Source: AFP