The tale of a woman swimming across the Atlantic Ocean — “swimming about 2,100 miles in shifts of up to 8 hours” — seemed incredible. Perhaps unbelievable.

The Associated Press has moved the following correction of a story that ran in Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, midway down the World Digest report on Page A12.

“In stories on Feb. 1, 7 and 8, about Jennifer Figge’s long-distance swim in the Atlantic, The Associated Press reported erroneously that she had swum across the ocean. Figge swam only a fraction of the 2,100-mile journey. The rest of the time, she rested on her crew’s westward-sailing catamaran. Her spokesman, David Higdon, told The AP on Tuesday that her total swimming distance has not been calculated yet, but that due to ocean hazards including inclement weather, he estimates she swam about 250 miles.”

Here’s the digest item that ran in the Post-Dispatch Sunday:

CHACACHACARE ISLAND, Trinidad

American woman swims across Atlantic
Jennifer Figge, 56, of Aspen, Colo., became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, reaching Trinidad on a trip that began at the Cape Verde Islands off Africa’s western coast on Jan. 12, swimming about 2,100 miles in shifts of up to 8 hours a day.

She now plans to swim from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands, ending her odyssey at the Bitter End Yacht Club in late February.

We’ll run the correction in tomorrow’s Post-Dispatch.