ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. (AP) - A college student says he agreed to a dare by his friends when he dove into the water off the Georgia coast and swam the distance between two of its barrier islands.
The Brunswick News reports 23-year-old John Lilliston swam the length of the St. Simons Sound on May 25. That’s more than 1 mile (1.6 kilometer) of open water separating Jekyll and St. Simons Islands.
Lilliston said he’s an avid swimmer and had heard of others performing the same feat in the 1980s. The Georgia Southern University student says the swim took him just over 40 minutes.
Strong currents off the islands can pose hazards in the sounds and sharks have been spotted there during the summer. Lilliston says friends followed him in a boat, so he wasn’t worried.
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Information from: The News, http://www.thebrunswicknews.com
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