Jennifer Figge-The First Woman To Swim Atlantic Ocean

By Staff

Monday, February 9, 2009, 16:13

Jennifer Figge, an endurance athlete from Aspen, Colorado becomes the first woman ever to swim across Atlantic Ocean. She propelled herself across 2,000 miles of ocean inside a 6 metre by 4-metre cage.

She crossed from Cape Verde Islands to Trinidad while the cage with electronic magnetic propeller protected her from sharks and other predators. When the sea turned stormy on some days, she stayed on the catamaran that accompanied her heroic journey. She completed this adventurous swimming within 24 days and she swam for 19 days out of the 24 days.

The nature was not so helpful in her journey. Some days the crew couldn't even see her in the water. The storm also changed her course and she landed at Trinidad, 1,000 miles away from her planned destination.

Figge got the inspiration for this historic swimming from a turbulent trans-Atlantic flight and from Gertrude Ederle, who swam in the Channel for the first time in 1926. NASA and Boeing engineers, a doctor and a diver accompanied her.

In her marine life, Figge didn't have to face any sharks. Any way a pod of pilot whales, turtles, dolphins, and Portuguese men of war kept her company. AGENCIES