It is the fifth time, I stand on this shore, the Cuban shore,looking out at the distant horizion, believing , again
that I am going to make it, All the way across that vast dangerous wilderness of an ocean.
Not only have I tried at the four time , but the greatest swimmers in the world have been trying since 1950, and it's still never been done.
The team is proud of our four attempts.
It is an expedition of some 30 people.
Bonnie, is my best friend and head of handler.
Who somehow summons will that last drops of will within me when I think it was gone after many many hours and days out there.
The shark experts are the best of the world - large predators below.
The box jellyfish the deadlist venom in all of the ocean , is in these waters, And I have come close to dying from them on a previously attempt.
The condition themselves, beside the sheer distance of over hundred miles in the open ocean.
The currents and whirling eddies and Gulf Stream itself, the most of unpredictable, of all over the planet earth.
And By the way, It is amusing to me that it journalists and people, you know, before these four attempts often ask me.
Well, are you going to go without any boats , without any people or anything.
And I'm think , what are they imagining? That I will just sort of doing some celestial navigation.
and you know carry a bowie knife in my mouth
and I'll hunt fish and skin them alive and you know eat them and maybe drag a desalinization plant behind me for fresh water.
Yes , I have a team.
And The team is experts, and the team is courageous, and brimmging with the innovision and scientific discovery.
as is true with any major expendtion on the planent.

Bonnie is able to push her wheneve she feels like quitting.

And we have been on a journey.
And you know the debate has raged, hasn't it, since the Greeks, or isn't it what's all about?
Isn't life, about the journey, not really about the destination.
And here we have been on this journey, and truth is, it's been thrilling.
We haven't reach on that other shore, and still, our sence of pride and commitment, unwavering commitment.
When I turn to 60, the dream was still alive from having tried this in my 20s , and dreamed it and imaged it.
The most famous body of water on the earth today, I imaging, cube to Florida.
And it was deep. It was deep in my soul.
And when I turn to 60, it wasn't so much about the athletic accomplishment, It wasn't the ego of "I want to be the first".
Thats that always here and some undeniable.
But it was , it was deeper. it was how much life is there left. let's face it we were all on the one-way street aren't we.
and what we are gonna do.
What we are gonna do , as we go forward and have no regards to looking back.
And all this past years I am trainning, I had that Teddy Roosevelt quota to paraphrase it , and floating around in my brain and it says "you go ahead.
You go ahead and sit back your comfortale chair, you will be the critique,you will be the observer.
While they brave one gets in the ring and engages.
and gets bloody , and gets dirty, and fails over and over and over again,But yet it isn't afraid , and it is determined and lives life in a bold way."
and so of coz , i want to made a cross.
It is a goal and I should be so shallow to say this year, the destination was even sweater than the journey.
But the journey itself , was worthwhile taking.
And at this point, by this summar , everybody -- scientists, sports scientist, endurance experts, neurologists, my own team bonnie, says it is impossible.
It just simply can be done and bonnie said to me But you have going to take a journey.
I am going to see you through to the end of it, So I will be there.

And now , we are there.
And it was looking out, kind of a surreal moment before the first joke, standing in the rocks at Marina Hemingway.
The cube flags is flying above, all my team out in their boats, and hungs up in the air, "We are here, we are here for you."
Bonnie and I look at each other and say this year the mantra is -- I have been used it in trainning -- find a way.
You have dream , and you have obstacles in front of you , as we all do .
None of us ever get through this life, without heartache , without turmoil.
And if you believe , and you have faith, and you can get knocked down and get back up again and you believe in perseverance as a great human quality, you find your way.
And Bonnie grabbed my shoulder and she said "Let us find our way to florida".
And we started, and for the next 53 hours, ho.. , it was intense, unforgetable life experience.
The highs were high and they awe I am not a religious person, but I will tell you.
to be in the azure blue of the Gulf Streams, as if, as youself breathing, you are looking down miles and miles and miles,
To fell the majesty of the blue plant we lived on, It is awe-inspiring.
I have playlist obout 85 song, and especially in the middele of the night, and that night, because we use no lights,
Light to track jellyfish, light to track shark, light to track the batfish that attract sharks, so we go in the pitch black of the night, you never seen the black , this black.
You can't see the front of your hand , and the people on the boat, bonnie and my team on the boat.
They just hear the slaping of the arms and they know where I am , because there is no visial at all.
and i am out there kind of tripping out on my little playlist.
I ve got a tight rapper cup so I don't hear a thing.and I've got goggles, and I am turnning my head 50 times a minute and I am singing.
Imaging there is no heaven, doo...doo...It easier if you try.
And I could sing that song at thousands times in a row.
Now there is a talent, unto itself.
and each song I got done with "Ooh, you may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one..."
222....Imaging ther is no heaven.
And when I get through the end of the thousand of John Lennon's Imagine,
I have swum 9 hours and 45 minutes, exactly,

And then there are the crisis. Of course there are.
And the vomitting start , the seawater, you are not well you're wearing a jellyfish mask for the ultimate protection.
It is difficult to swimmimg , It is causing abrasion on the inside of the mouth, but the tentacles can not get you.
And the hypothermia sets in, The water's 85 degrees yet you losing weight and using calories.
And you come over towards the side of the boats, not allowed to touch it, not allowed to get out.
But Bonnie and her team hands me the nurition Ask me what I am doing and what how am I right? I am seeing the taj mohal over here.
I am in a, you know , very different state.And I am thinking "waw, I never thought I've being running in the taj mohal out here".
It is gorgeous. I means someone how long did it take them to built that, just you know.
And then we kind of have a cardinal rule that I am never told really how far it is because we do not how far it is.
What is going to happen to you . between this point and that point? What is going to that happend the weather and currents.
God forbid, you're stung, when you don't think you could be stung in all this armor.
And Bonnie made a decision ,coming into that the third morning, That I was suffering and I was hunging on by a thread.
And she said "Come here", And I came close to the boat and she said,"Look, Look out there" And I saw light.
Cause the days easier than the light, and I thought we were coming into the day, and I saw the stream of white light along the horizon.
And I said "It is going to be morning soon".
She said no, Those of the lights are key West.
It was 15 more hours, which for the most swimmers would be a long time.
You have no idea that how many 15 hours trainning swims that I had done.

So here we go when I somehow without a decision Went into no counting of strokes and no singing and no quoting Stephen Hawking and no parameter of the Universe.
I just went into thinking about this dream, and why and how
and as I said when I turn 60, it wasn't about the concreate you know, can you do it ?
That's the everyday machinations.That's the discipline , It's the preparation, and it is the pride in that.
But I decide to think I was along about you know , the phrase usually reaching out the stars , and in my case , it is reaching for the horizion.
And when you reach for the horizon, As I proven , you may not get there , But what what the tremendous, build of charactor and spirit that you lay down.
What a fundation you lay down and reaching for those horizion.
And now the shore is coming and there's just little part of me that's sad.
the epic journey is going to be over.
So many people come up to me now and say "what's the next"
We'll love that. That little tracker that was on the computer? when are you going to do the next one ? we just can't wait to follow the next one.
you know , they were just for 53 hours I was there for years,
And so that won't be there another epic journey in the oceans, But the point is , and the point was that every day of our life is epic.
And I will tell you , when I walked into that beach, staggered up onto that beach.
And I had so many times in a very puffed up ago way rehearsed what I would say on the beach,
When bonnie thought that the back of throat was swelling up,
and she brought the medical team over to our boat to say that she's really beginning to have trouble breathing.
and another 12, 24 hours in the salte wate , the whole thing - and I just thought in my hallucinatory moment, that I heard the word tracheotomy.
And Bonnie said to the doctor I am not worried about the braething.
If she can't talk when we gets to the shore , she's going to be pissed off.

But the truth is , all those orations that I had practiced just to get my self through some training swims as motivation. It wasn't like that.
It is a very real moment, with that crowd, with my team.
We did it , I didn't do it , we did it.
And we will never forget it, I will always be part of us.
And the three things I did, sort of blurt out when we got there, was first,Never , ever , give up.
I live in it, What is the pharse from today from Socrates? To be is to do.
So I do not stay up and say don't never give up.
I didn't give up and there was the action behind the words.
the second is you can chase your dreams at any age, you never too old.
64, That no one at any age, any gender, could ever do has done it.
And thers is no doubt in my mind, that I am at the prime of my life today.
And the third thing I said on that beach was "It looks like the most solitary endeavor in the world, and in many ways,of course, it is."
And in other ways, and the most important ways, It is a team,and if you think i am a badass , you want to meet Bonnie.
Bonnie , where are u? where are u?
There is Bonnie stoll, My buddy.
The Henry David Thorea quote goes, when you achieve your dream, It's not so much what you get as who you have become in achieving them.
And yeah I stand before you now,
In the three months since that swims end I've sat down with Oprah, and I've been in the president Obama's Oval Office.
I ve been invited to speak in front of esteemed groups such as yourselfs.
I've signed a wonderful major book contract.
All that's great and I don't denigrate it.
I'm proud of it all and the truth is I am walking around tall because I am that bold fearless person,
and I will be, everyday, until it's time for these days. to be done.
Find a way!