Woman completes treacherous Cuba-to-Florida swim with no shark cage

Diana Nyad swims towards the completion of her 111-mile trek from Cuba to the Florida Keys, positioned about two miles off Key West, Fla., Monday, Sept. 2, 2013. (Florida Keys News Bureau, Andy Newman)

Diana Nyad has become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.

The 64-year-old Nyad stepped ashore in Key West on Monday just before 2 p.m. EDT, about 53 hours after she began her swim in Havana on Saturday.

As she approached the shore, spectators surrounded her in the water, taking pictures and cheering her on. She swam within a couple dozen feet of the beach and walked on to dry land. She looked dazed and sunburned.

It was Nyad's fifth try to complete the approximately 110-mile swim. She tried three times in 2011 and 2012. She had also tried in 1978.

Her last attempt was cut short amid boat trouble, storms, unfavourable currents and jellyfish stings that left her face puffy and swollen.

Nyad's journey began Saturday morning when she jumped from the seawall of the Hemingway Marina into the warm waters off Havana. She has been swimming the Florida Strait ever since, stopping from time to time for nourishment.

She had gotten very cold overnight, her team said, so they decided not to stop her to eat and drink in hopes that swimming would keep her warm.

"I admit there's an ego rush," Nyad said before the swim began. "If I -- three days from now, four days from now -- am still somehow bringing the arms up and I see the shore ... I am going to have a feeling that no one yet on this planet has ever had."

Nyad, who recently turned 64, tried the swim the Strait three times in 2011 and 2012. She had also tried in 1978.

Her last attempt ended amid boat trouble, storms, unfavorable currents and jellyfish stings that left her face puffy and swollen.

This time she wore a full bodysuit, gloves, booties and a mask to help protect her from stings. Before the swim she said the suit slowed her down, but she believed it would be effective.

The support team is accompanying her had equipment that generates a faint electrical field around her is designed to keep sharks at bay, and a boat drags a line to help keep her on course.

Australian Susie Maroney successfully swam the Strait in 1997 with a shark cage, which besides protection from the predators, has a drafting effect that pulls a swimmer along.

In 2012, Australian Penny Palfrey swam 79 miles toward Florida without a cage before strong currents forced her to abandon the attempt. This June, her countrywoman Chloe McCardel made it 11 hours and 14 miles before jellyfish stings ended her bid.

In 1978, Walter Poenisch, an Ohio baker, claimed to have made the swim using flippers and a snorkel. Critics say there was insufficient independent documentation to verify his claim.

Nyad first came to national attention in 1975 when she swam the 28 miles around the island of Manhattan in just under eight hours. In 1979 she swam the 102 miles from North Bimini, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Fla., in 27.5 hours.

Nyad is also an author of three books, a motivational speaker and has been a reporter and commentator for NPR.