Raging storm ends girl’s bid to cross Lake Ontario

Less than 300 metres from shore, with thunder and lightening crashing around her, 14-year-old Maya Farrell was forced to abandon her attempt to be the youngest swimmer ever to cross Lake Ontario. With Maya swimming into the teeth of a storm after nearly 24 gruelling hours in the water, swim master Miguel Vadillo said he was forced to call off the swim for Maya’s safety.

“I left it as long as I possibly could,” he said by phone from Maya’s support boat, while the storm still raged around them. “Maya’s being checked out by the team doctor now. She threw up a few times and is totally exhausted.”

Had Maya succeeded in reaching the tip of the Leslie Street Spit, she would have claimed the record by a mere few weeks over current titleholder Trinity Arsenault.

At about 7:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Maya and her team were nearing the shore at Vicki Keith Point when a huge thunderstorm blew in and pushed them farther out into the lake.

It was a crushing defeat after coming so close to her goal, Vadillo said.

“Maya is such a special girl, she deserves so much credit,” he said.

The swim was a fundraising effort for Music Heals, a charity that uses music therapy to help seniors, children’s hospital and palliative care patients, at-risk youth and people living with HIV and AIDS.

Maya began her marathon from Niagara-on-the-Lake on Tuesday, hitting the water at 7:59 p.m.

Swimming through the night, she wore glow sticks so her support crew could see her and followed the lights of her three support boats.

Maya told CTV Ottawa that the swim was her grandfather’s idea. He had recently cycled across the country raising money for a charity and, because Maya’s a swimmer, “he said I had to do it,” she said.