You're going to. The You're listening to nocturne. I'm Vanessa Lowe. The water was black and visibility was maybe three feet at the most, but when we were on shore and getting ready to get in, we couldn't see our friends standing next to us. It was so dark. There was starlight in the

distance but there was no light on the beach. Lynn Cox is a long distance open

water swimmer. She's also an author and an activist. Lynn has

spent her life swimming vast distances and pushing herself to the edges of

possibility. While her strength, endurance, and bravery have led her through previously unswum waters,

a tremendous amount of care and planning goes into each ambitious swim.

Lynn is the first to say that she does not do this alone.

You rely on your crew. Some of the swims I've done, I've really had to say, what do you think, you think it's safe enough, can you have boats around

me and will you be watching the water?

And you have to have the sense that if something goes wrong, they're there to get you out and

they know what they're doing.

All of this stuff is really serious.

I have usually three plans in place and then when those plans fall apart for some reason,

I have smart people on board the boat that can think of

something else to do I mean because anything can happen on a swim.

Let's back up. At 12 years old Lynn began swimming with Olympic coach Don

Gambrel in Southern California.

He recognized early on that she was not a pool swimmer.

Sprint's were not her strength.

And he suggested that she try a three-mile open ocean race.

So I entered the woman's division.

I was 14 years old, and I wound up winning woman's division and coming third in the man's division.

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