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.
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.
