GRAND HAVEN, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Aug. 12, 2024) – One can’t blame Jim Dreyer for kicking himself right now.
On Monday, the 60-year-old ultra-marathon swimmer from Grand Haven emerged from a 72-hour silence to explain what happened when his third attempt to swim solo across Lake Michigan was stopped at nearly the halfway mark. Dreyer was attempting to get from his hometown to Milwaukee, towing around 225 pounds of equipment on an inflatable dingy in a 83-mile-plus trek to not only raise funds for the US Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association, but to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his first cross-Lake Michigan trek from Ludington to Mantiwoc.
Weather stymied two attempts last August, and after swimming about a third of the way on Thursday, going quicker than expected, Dreyer said that the AA batteries on his GPS unit were dying, and a bag containing fresh batteries had apparently gone overboard. Without that unit, he was virtually swimming blind, and around 11:30 AM, he called off the effort, and was taken back home by those in a support boat.
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.
An online link to Dreyer’s account of his latest swim is here.
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