1975. 1974: In June 1974, Nyad set a women's record of 8 hours, 11 minutes in the 22-mile (35 km) Bay of Naples race. 1975: At age 26, Nyad made national headlines by swimming around the island of Manhattan (New York City) in just under 8 hours (7 hours 57 minutes.) An account of her swim, published the next day, stated Nyad was tall (1.7 m) and weighed . 1978: At age 28 she first attempted to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, one year after the Kennedy-era travel restrictions were lifted. Diving into the ocean at 2PM on Sunday, August 13 from Ortegosa Beach ( west of Havana), she swam inside a steel shark cage for nearly 42 hours, before team doctors removed her during the 7 o'clock hour on the morning of Tuesday, August 15 due to strong Westerly winds and swells that were slamming her against the cage and pushing her off-course towards Texas. She had covered about , but not in a straight line. 1979: On her 30th birthday (August 21–22, 1979), in what was to be her last "competitive" swim, she set a world record for distance swimming (both men and women) over open water by swimming from North Bimini Island, Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida (without the use of protective shark cage). Thanks to favorable winds and a following sea she averaged and completed the swim in 27 and one-half hours. Several experts who attended the 2011 Global Open Water Swimming Conference in New York City on June 17–19, 2011 expressed their strong belief that Nyad had both the physical ability and, more importantly, the positive mental stamina to be able to complete the Cuba-to-Florida swim: sports physiology studies have shown that in "extreme" marathon-type activities mental determination is a more important factor than the physical energy of youth. Cuba to Florida swim attempts in 2011–2013 Preparations By early January 2010 Nyad began training for a summer attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. Taking up residence in the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, from January through June, she would go for 8-, 10-, 12-, and 14-hour-long swims every other week. She then moved her training to Key West and, while waiting for favorable weather conditions, she embarked on a 24-hour swim. On July 10, she reserved a 35-foot fishing vessel to take her out to sea. At 8:19 AM she jumped overboard