Couple’s attempt to cross Lake Michigan ends

LUDINGTON, Mich. — Currents and exhaustion have kept a Michigan couple from finishing a planned 50-mile swim across Lake Michigan to raise awareness about postpartum depression.

Family spokesman Ryan Reed says in an email to The Associated Press that Sara and Jeff Tow were declared medically unable to continue the swim Wednesday. He says they were brought by boat to Ludington and taken to a hospital for evaluation.

The Grand Rapids-area couple got under way Tuesday morning from Two Rivers, Wis. They had planned to swim to the Big Point Sable Lighthouse at West Michigan’s Ludington State Park.

Reed says strong currents slowed their progress.

Both were members of Ohio University swim teams and say they suffered from postpartum depression following the births of their children, now 11 and 9.