A 56-year-old mother has become the first woman to swim the Atlantic after an epic 24-day crossing in a shark cage. Jennifer Figge, from Aspen, Colorado, set off from the Cape Verde Islands on January 12, facing waves of up to 9 metres.
She had originally planned to swim to the Bahamas, but landed on a beach at an abandoned leper colony on Trinidad’s Chacachacare Island on Thursday after being blown 1000 miles off course.
During the crossing, she saw a pod of pilot whales, several turtles, dozens of dolphins, plenty of Portuguese men-of-war - but no sharks.
While she was swimming, crew members would throw bottles of energy drinks to her or, if the seas were too rough, a diver would deliver them in person.
At night, she returned to the boat to gorge on meat, fish and peanet butter to replenish the estimated 8000 calories she burned each day.
Figge, who made the journey a decade after French swimmer Benoit Lecomte pulled off his solo trans-Atlantic swim, seems not to be tired of swimming and will continue onward from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands before returning home to Colorado.
Jennifer Figge, she's shown posing for a picture after her arrival to Chacachacare Island, in Trinidad, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009 - AP photo
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