TOKYO -- A long-distance swimmer has suspended his attempt to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean because of severe storms off Japan.
A U.S. digital media outlet that is documenting the swim says that swimmer Ben Lecomte and the yacht accompanying him are returning to a port in Japan.
Lecomte has swum about 800 kilometres of the 8,000-kilometre journey to San Francisco since leaving the Japanese coastal city of Choshi nearly two months ago. The journey was expected to last six to eight months with Lecomte swimming about eight hours a day.
His team plans to return when the weather calms to where he left off so the 51-year-old Lecomte can resume his swim.
The Pacific typhoon season is currently under way.
