Diana Nyad Abandons Cuba To Florida Swim At Midway Point

American endurance swimmer Diana Nyad swims in Cuban waters, offshore Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2011. Nyad jumped into Cuban waters Sunday evening and set off in a bid to become the first person to swim across the Florida Straits without the aid of a shark cage. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Diana Nyad, 61, abandoned her 103 mile swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage Tuesday morning at 12:45am. Nearing the halfway point, Nyad made the call to stop at hour 29.

"I am not sad. It was absolutely the right call," she said, reports CNN.

As Nyad boarded the Bellissimo, the 75-foot yacht that had accompanied her on her mission and housed her 30+ person crew, she was vomiting, exhausted and emotional. She was given intravenous fluids and rose three hours later to enter the boat and describe her experience.

The third hour of Nyad's journey brought pain to her right shoulder. As hour 15 approached, she suffered from asthma symptoms. By hour 28, Nyad's pain was so severe that she "had to rest every three or four freestyle strokes, rolling onto her back to breathe."

Hour 29 begged Nyad to ask herself a crucial question and admit to the answer.

"Do I have to swim all night and all day and all night again?"

Surrendering to maladies, Nyad aborted a mission that had consumed her life for the past two years, training daily for up to 12 hours each day.

"To swim between these two neighbors, Cuba & the United States, who've been strangers all these years, is a moving thing for me," Nyad had said.

Nyad appears content with her efforts.

"It felt like this was my moment. I don't feel like a failure at all. But we needed a little more luck," she said via her Twitter page on Tuesday morning.