Jennifer Figge pressed her toes into the Caribbean sand, exhilarated and exhausted¹ as she touched land for the first time in almost a month.

Reaching a beach in Trinidad, she became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean - a dream she'd had since the early 1960s, when a stormy trans-Atlantic flight got her thinking she could don a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.

The 56-year-old left the Cape² Verde Islands off Africa's western coast on January 12, battling waves of up to 30 feet and strong winds.

David Higdon, a friend of Figge who kept in touch with her via satellite phone, said she had originally planned to swim the Bahamas, but inclement³ weather forced her to veer⁴ 1,610 km off course to Trinidad, where she reached on February 5.

But Trinidad is not Figge's last stop. She plans to continue her odyssey⁵, swimming from Trinidad to the British Virgin⁶ Islands, where she expects to reach later this month. The crew won't compute⁷ the total distance Figge swims until after she completes the journey, Higdon said.

Then it's home to Aspen, Colorado - where she trained for months in an outdoor pool amid snowy blizzards⁸ - to reunite with her Alaskan Malamute. The dog swirled⁹ in her thoughts, as did family and friends, as Figge stroked through the chilly¹⁰ Atlantic waters escorted by a sailboat. She saw a pod of pilot whales, several turtles, dozens of dolphins, plenty of Portuguese¹¹ man-of-war - but no sharks.

"I was never scared," Figge said. "Looking back, I wouldn't have it any other way. I can always swim in a pool."

Her journey comes a decade after French swimmer Benoit Lecomte made the first known solo trans-Atlantic swim, covering nearly 6,400 km from Massachusetts to France in 73 days.

Figge woke most days around 7 am, eating pasta and baked potatoes while she and the crew assessed the weather. Her longest stint¹² in the water was about eight hours, and her shortest was 21 minutes. Crew members threw bottles of energy drinks as she swam. At night she ate meat, fish and peanut butter, replenishing the estimated 8,000 calories she burned a day.

Figge wore a red cap and wet suit, and her only good-luck charm underneath¹³: an old, red shirt to guard against chafing¹⁴, signed by friends, relatives and her father, who recently died.

The other possession she kept on board was a picture of Gertrude Ederle, an American who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

Figge reached Trinidad's Chacachacare Island, an abandoned leper colony, at 5:20 pm. She plans to leave Trinidad tonight. During this brief respite¹⁵, she has avoided the hotel pool and nearby ocean, opting¹⁶ instead for the treadmill¹⁷.

Questions:

1. How did Jennifer Figge get the idea to swim across the Atlantic?

2. What kinds of sea life did Figge see?

3. Who was the first woman to swim across the English Channel?

Answers:

1. When she was on a stormy trans-Atlantic flight and thought she could wear a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.

2. Pilot whales, turtles, dophins and Portuguese man-of-war.

3. Gertrude Ederle.