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Sunday, February 8, 2009
Jennifer Figge is the first woman to swim across the Atlantic!
56 year old Jennifer Figge jumped in the Ocean from the Cape Verde Islands off Africa's western coast on January 12. The next time she set food on land was in Trinidad on February 5.
Jennifer Figge misses her target by 1000 miles
Jennifer originally planned to swim all the way to the Bahamas, but strong winds got her 1.000 miles or about 1600 kilometers off course to set foot on one of the marvellous beaches of Trinidad.
Imagine strong winds to make waves from up to 30 feet or about 10 meters, and you can imagine why Jennifer Figge never reached the Bahamas.
Jennifer Figge plans to continue
... for another 3 weeks. Just arrived in Trinidad, Jennifer announced she wants to continue swimming from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands. She hopes to set foot on the Virgin Islands before March. Jennifer will leave Trinidad on Monday night.
How to swim across the ocean?
Don't try this at home... And don't stay in the water 24 hours a day.
Jennifer prepared herself for her odyssey in Aspen, Colorado. There she trained for months in an outdoor swimming pool amid snowy blizzards.
Figge swam up to eight hours a day inside a cage to protect her from marine predators. Her longest stint in the water was about eight hours, and her shortest was 21 minutes.
Overnight she rested on the sail-boat accompanying her.
As Figge stroked through the chilly Atlantic waters, her family, friends and dog swirled in her thoughts. Jennifer encountered anything but sharkes: a pod of pilot whales, several turtles, dozens of dolphins and plenty of Portuguese man-of-war.
Where did Jennifer Figge get her energy?
Figge woke most days around 7 a.m., eating pasta and baked potatoes.
Crew members would throw bottles of energy drinks as she swam. When the seas were too rough, divers would deliver them in person.
At night Jennifer ate meat, fish and peanut butter in order to replenish the estimated 8,000 calories she burned during the day.
Figge's swimwear was a red cap, a wet suit and a good-luck charm underneath: an old, red shirt to guard against chafing, signed by friends, relatives and her father, who recently died.
Jennifer Figge swimming from Cape Verde Africa to Trinidad America
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