Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Trinity Arsenault’s north-to-south crossing of Lake Ontario this summer was considered one of the most courageous crossings on record in the Great Lakes.

Her swim started off smoothly with reasonable water temperatures and small waves. But as the sun rose, the winds picked up. As the day progressed, the weather deteriorated as the 14-year-old stuck to her plan.

Vicki Keith recalls the young lady’s effort. “Winds reached 25 knots and we literally swam around the thunderstorms. At one point, we completely reversed the forward motion of the swim and had Trinity swimming back towards St Catherine’s to avoid a thunderstorm. Then we had to readjust again and she sprinted towards Hamilton (west) to out-pace a different thunderstorm. These manoeuvres helped her outflanked the thunderstorms that were pounding the entire region and caused severe flooding in certain lake front communities. Trinity increased her pace in the final hours of the swim to complete these manoeuvres and the swim.

Between her heart, the manoeuvres, lots of prayers and an amazing team, Trinity and her mom also became the first mother-daughter duo to complete a Lake Ontario crossing.”

Her swim master Marilyn Korzekwa who twice crossed Lake Ontario herself commented, “It was the most incredible swimming I’ve ever seen on Lake Ontario” while her lead boat captain simply said “We were in God’s hands.“

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