Swim for the Win

Reuters

This spring look toward the Pacific, where a pretty amazing journey is scheduled to begin in April (or May or July, depending on your news source). French swimmer Ben (Benoit) Lecomte will attempt to swim from Tokyo (yes, Japan) to San Francisco (yes, California). And no, it won’t be all at once ~ that would be ridiculous. He’s going to do it in stages, using a GPS to mark where he gets out of the water to rest, etc., and returning to that spot to continue. Still, it won’t be a cakewalk: Lecomte will be in the water at least eight hours a day for five months (and yes, he’ll be wearing a sonar device to keep the sharks away) ~ also ridiculous but maybe a bit more realistic. Apparently, he kind of knows what he’s in for, because in 1998, he swam from Massachusetts to France (this is just a summary of the magazine's story, as it's in the current issue): http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/water-activities/swimming/Man-Overboard-Lecomte.html
   Probably the first danger one thinks of on hearing of Lecomte's plan is sharks. But there are other perils out there, too: http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2012/03/is-ben-lecomte-safe-swimming-in-pacific.html