on the route at Castro‘s urging, starts the 112-mile (180-km) swim on Monday. „He told us that the water was warm and blue and was another good possibility for a crossing,“ Maroney told Reuters. The Jamaica-to-Cuba crossing would add to Maroney‘s long distance resume, which includes swims across the English Channel, the Florida Straits from Cuba to Key West in 1997, and from Mexico to Cuba in 1998. In the swim from Mexico, Maroney took more than 38 hours to make the 123-mile (198-km) crossing and said the high point of her journey was having dinner with Castro, the revolutionary who has led Cuba‘s communist government for 40 years. Maroney set out from Jamaica on Monday and would be in the water for about 32 hours, arriving in Cuba some time on Tuesday depending on current and weather. Two possible routes have been planned for the swim, from Montego Bay to the southernmost tip of Cuba around Cabo Cruz, or from Puerto Antonio to the entrance of the bay at Santiago de Cuba. While the swimmer is afforded a measure of protection by being enclosed in a shark cage for the crossing, she has to fight the elements, stings from jellyfish and other small sea creatures, and most dangerous of all, fatigue which could induce sleep. „The real danger period is from 11 p.m. to five in the morning when the body wants to sleep, and I remember hallucinating during that period last year,“ she said. To maintain concentration during those critical hours Maroney sings or thinks about a favourite movie, and stops every hour and treads water for about 30 seconds. „It‘s the thrill of the challenge - trying to do things that have never been done before. I‘m keenly aware of the pain during those 30-odd hour swims, but at the end of it all I‘m very happy at my accomplishment,“ she said. Maroney won her first marathon race in the United States in 1989, at age 14. A year later she crossed the English Channel and the next year returned for a double crossing between England and France. In 1995 she achieved the coveted entry in the Guinness Book of Records by swimming 24-hours non-stop in a 50-metre swimming pool in Australia. Later that year, Susan, her mother, two brothers and two sisters crossed the English Channel. A year later she turned her attention to the Americas with her first attempt to cross from Cuba to the United States. After being in the water for 36 hours she made it into U.S. waters but just failed in her ultimate objective to reach the shore. For her latest venture, the intrepid Aussie, a native of Sydney, will again have strong family support. Her twin brother Sean, mother Pauline and a friend, Daniel will be on the boat which will accompany her on the crossing. During the crossing her supporting cast will ensure that she has lots of Jamaican reggae music blasting out from the boat to keep her alert. The adventurous Aussie still continues to seek more sponsors to cover the US$50,000 bill for the enterprise.