Marathon swimmer Jim "The Shark" Dreyer fails latest attempt to cross Lake Michigan
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A marathon swimmer abandoned his latest attempt to cross Lake Michigan on Wednesday, after about 40 hours in the water.
Jim "The Shark" Dreyer had planned to swim at least 80 miles from Grand Haven, Michigan, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while towing a small inflatable boat loaded with supplies.
But an online tracker showing his progress showed he turned back to Wisconsin on Wednesday morning, after appearing to veer off course, heading north instead of west.
"The swim is over. I am safe. There were only two good hours in this 40-hour swim. If you were watching the tracker , I promise I wasn't drunk . We will talk after a sleep Marathon. Thank you all for your support, Your Love, and prayers," Dreyer wrote in a Facebook post.
Dreyer first swam across Lake Michigan in 1998, starting in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and finishing in Ludington, Michigan.
But he's now tried and failed four times to do it again since 2023.
Before his latest attempt this week, he also tried to swim across the lake last month, beginning on Aug. 6. The next day, he paused to put fresh batteries in his GPS device, but somehow lost the bag in the lake, leaving him with only a compass and nature to help him try to keep swimming west.
However, he ended up swimming north, burning precious time and energy, and adding more miles as risky weather approached before a support crew pulled him out of the lake on Aug. 8, with forecasts calling for 9-foot waves before he would have reached Wisconsin.
Dreyer said, by then, his "brain was mush" and he was having hallucinations about a steel wall and cargo ships.