Saturday, February 07, 2009

Nice News



About a long-distance swimmer:

Jennifer Figge pressed her toes into the Caribbean sand, exhilarated and exhausted as she touched land this week for the first time in almost a month.

Reaching a beach in Trinidad, she became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean — a dream she'd had since the early 1960s, when a stormy trans-Atlantic flight got her thinking she could don a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.

The 56-year-old left the Cape Verde Islands off Africa's western coast on Jan. 12, swimming 19 out of 25 days battling waves of up to 30 feet. The distance from Cape Verde to Trinidad is roughly 700 miles. Crewmembers are still computing exactly how many miles she swam.

You go girl, as they say in this country.