GRAND HAVEN, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Aug. 9, 2024) – For the third time, Jim Dreyer’s quest to swim across Lake Michigan has been thwarted.
Around 11:30 AM on Thursday, the 60-year-old ultra-marathon swimmer from Grand Haven abandoned his effort to cross the Big Lake alone, towing 225 pounds of equipment on an inflatable dingy. He began from his hometown on Tuesday morning, looking to make the 83-mile-plus trek to Milwaukee, to raise funds for the US Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association. Around dawn on Thursday morning, about halfway through, Dreyer started to drift northward away from his intended path, and the decision was made to stop the swim. He returned safely to Grand Haven by 3 PM.
It was the third time that Dreyer had attempted this swim, after two efforts last year were stymied by weather conditions. He was looking to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his first cross-Lake Michigan swim from Ludington to Mantiwoc.
Dreyer is planning a 17-stage, 411-mile team relay swim from Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior to Detroit next July, to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the sinking of the Edmond Fitzgerald, and to raise funds for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society.
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