A man attempting an epic 80-mile (128 kilometer) swim across Lake Michigan said he gave up on the third day after losing two batteries for a critical GPS device and ending up badly off course.
Jim Dreyer, 60, was pulled from the water last Thursday after 60 miles (96 kilometers). He said he had been swimming from Michigan to Wisconsin for hours without a GPS, relying only on a wrist compass and his reading of the sky and waves.
A support boat pulled up and informed him that he had been swimming north all day — “the wrong direction,” said Dreyer, who had left Grand Haven on Tuesday.
“What a blow!” he said in a report that he posted online. “I should have been in the home stretch, well into Wisconsin waters with about 23 miles (37 kilometers) to go. Instead, I had 47 miles (75 kilometers) to go, and the weather window would soon close.”
Dreyer said his “brain was mush” and he was having hallucinations about a steel wall — “stuck my hand right through it” — and cargo ships. He figured he would need a few more days to reach Milwaukee, but there was a forecast of 9-foot (2.7-meter) waves.
“We all knew that success was now a long shot and the need for rescue was likely if I continued,” Dreyer said.
Dreyer, whose nickname is The Shark, crossed Lake Michigan in 1998, starting in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and finishing in Ludington, Michigan. But three attempts to do it again since last summer have been unsuccessful.
Dreyer was towing an inflatable boat with nutrition and supplies last week. On the second day, he paused to get fresh AA batteries to keep a GPS device working. But during the process, he said he somehow lost the bag in the lake.
He had only a compass and nature around him to help him try to keep moving west.
"It was an accident, but it was my fault," Dreyer said of the batteries. “This is a tough pill to swallow.”
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In this image provided by Jonathan Boeve, Jim Dreyer, right, talks to his support team in Lake Michigan, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, on the third day of his attempt to swim from Michigan to Wisconsin. (Jonathan Boeve via AP)
FILE- With his right eye swollen shut from the swim, Jim Dreyer emerges victorious from the water, Aug. 3, 1998, after completing a 43.2-mile, 41-hour crossing of Lake Michigan. (Jon M. Brouwer/The Grand Rapids Press via AP, File)
Jim Dreyer heads out into Lake Michigan in Grant Haven, Mich., Aug. 6, 2024, in his attempt to swim to Wisconsin. (Blace Carpenter/The Tribune via AP)
TOKYO (AP) — Japan saw record-high exports last year, as its annual trade deficit declined 44% from the previous year, the Finance Ministry reported Thursday.
The trade deficit, which measures the value of exports minus imports, totaled 5.3 trillion yen ($34 billion), according to government data, as imports ballooned on the back of rising energy costs and growing inflation around the world.
Exports from the world’s third-largest economy totaled 107.9 trillion yen ($691 billion), surpassing the 100 trillion yen mark for the second-straight year, and the biggest value on record for comparable data, which dates back to 1979, the ministry said.
Some companies may have sped up their exports in anticipation of potential tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump has said he expects to put 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Feb. 1. During his campaign, he threatened to impose tariffs on imports from China, although details on that remain unclear.
For the month of December, exports gained a greater-than-expected 2.8% on-year, while imports rose 1.8%. Exports grew to Asian and European nations, while dipping slightly to the U.S.
Imports grew most from India, Hong Kong and Iran.
Demand was especially strong for Japan's vehicles, semiconductors and other machinery.
The weakening yen, another recent trend, has the effect of inflating the value of imports. The U.S. dollar has been hovering at 150-yen levels, sometimes surpassing 160 yen, over the past year, while a year ago it was often at 140-yen levels.
Japan has recorded a trade deficit for four straight years, but last year's deficit was considerably smaller than the 9.5 trillion yen deficit for 2023.
FILE - Cars for export are parked at a port in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on July 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)