A Saanich woman’s 109-kilometre swim from Vancouver Island to Vancouver’s Jericho Beach was cut short due to health complications after 15 hours in the water.
Jill Yoneda’s swim began at Brentwood Bay on Friday morning with a team of about 20 supporters trailing her in a fishing boat and started well.
“Jill is staying strong and keeping an amazing pace,” said one update from her support crew, 10 hours in.
A humpback whale had crested nearby to say hello while she was swimming near Salt Spring, they said.
But a few hours later, Yoneda’s lungs began filling with fluid in a case of swimming-induced pulmonary edema, which can make breathing highly difficult, they said.
After consulting with Dr. Kelly Heape, who was on the support ship to provide medical help, Yoneda was pulled on board to give her a chance to recover.
“Although Jill is disappointed her ultra swim was cut short, the ultimate priority of the entire crew is to keep her safe and healthy as we can,” the crew said.
Yoneda and her crew sailed on the support vessel to Jericho Beach on Saturday afternoon, where she re-entered the water and was greeted by fans, family and members of the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.
The swim is a fundraiser for the hospice, the only pediatric palliative care provider for British Columbia and the Yukon, in memory of her cousin Joshua Yoneda, who died from a malignant tumour in his spinal cord.
The challenging swim from Brentwood Bay to Jericho Beach was expected to take between 40 to 50 hours to complete. There’s a very narrow favourable time window for the swim due to current and tide conditions.
Yoneda, 49, began swimming competitively at the age of seven and holds three world records for dynamic apnea freediving.
