The 5 women who set out to do what no one had done before, were halted before completing their goal. Swimming Lake Ontario lengthwise, in a 305-kilometer relay from east to west, was the plan. It was undertaken to raise money for the global charity, ‘Because I Am a Girl’, the organization that promotes girl’s rights and aims to end gender inequality.
Mona Sharari, the youngest of the group, was taken out of the water on Friday afternoon due to dehydration and exhaustion. Her four team-mates followed on Saturday.
They began last Tuesday, July 16, swimming in two-hour shifts, day and night, sleeping and eating in the entourage of zodiacs and sail boats accompanying them.
A post on their Facebook page said, “After 4 gruelling days of swimming in ever changing conditions we’ve decided to change our landing destination to Whitby. We’ve had an extremely challenging swim, but are glad we’ve made it as far as we have.”
The group managed a record-setting 242 kilometres in terrible conditions. They had to wait half a day for thunder and lightning to subside. Wind whipped up two-metre waves and water temperatures fluctuated from to warm, to frigid.
All of the women, are seasoned long-distance solo swimmers. Mona Sharari swam across the English Channel last year and the other 4 have each completed solo crossings of the width of Lake Ontario.
Marilyn Bell was the first swimmer to complete the 52-kilometre width- crossing in 1954 when she was 16 years old.
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