Some people celebrate their 50th birthdays with an exotic vacation or a fancy meal.
Jill Yoneda’s idea of making the milestone memorable is to swim just over double her age, or around 109 kilometres — non-stop — from Brentwood Bay to Vancouver’s Jericho Beach.
And she’s doing it despite dealing with everything from a degenerative disc disease — she has three titanium discs in her spine — to “slipping rib syndrome,” where her ribs pop out of place during long swims.
“I have been told that I am stubborn,” said Yoneda, who turns 50 on Aug. 29. “I like to challenge myself.”
It will be the farthest the Saanich resident, who works as an office manager for Westheart Cardiology, has ever attempted swimming, but she is no stranger to long-distance swims.
In 2018, she completed a double crossing of the Strait of Georgia — about 80 kilometres in total — in just over 25 hours.
This time, she estimates it will be 40 to 50 hours before her feet touch the ground after she sets off at about 7 a.m. Friday in Brentwood Bay.
And she knows exactly what she’s getting into.
The biggest challenge will be severe sleep deprivation, which can cause hallucinations, said Yoneda, who was born in Edmonton but has lived in Victoria since 1982.
Staying in the water for long periods of time also plays havoc on the body.
One plague of the long-distance swimmer she dreads most is “salt mouth,” where the lips, tongue and inner lining of the mouth develop ulcers and sores.
“Bits of my tongue fell out the last time,” said Yoneda. “It was not a pretty sight.”
Although she will be wearing a wet suit, she is also wary of hypothermia, for which she was hospitalized after her Strait of Georgia swim.
She said the “hard gritty stuff” of long-distance swimming includes getting diarrhea in the middle of a swim and not being able to clean out the wet suit — leading to subsequent infections. Minor complaints include chafing and carrying the weight of the wet suit on the shoulders.
She will have a team of 20 supporters, including a doctor, accompanying her on board the Ocean Adele, a 65-foot fishing boat. Some will use a kayak or stand-up paddleboard to assess her condition, supply food and water and provide moral support.
One of the items the team will have with them to inspire her during her swim is a picture of Joshua Yoneda, a cousin who died from a spinal cord glioma — a malignant tumour — at 27.
The swim is a fundraiser for Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in Joshua’s memory. The hospice is the only pediatric palliative care provider for British Columbia and the Yukon.
“Often when I swim and think of him, I cry. I cry also for him and all the children at Canuck Place,” she said. “I would be a philanthropist if I was wealthy — but I’m not. Swimming is easy for me. I can swim in spite of my many medical issues.”
On land, she walks with a limp. But once she is in the water, she is in her element, with all of her ailments pushed to the back of her mind, she says.
Yoneda learned how to swim before she learned to walk, she says. She was a competitive swimmer by the time she was seven, became a scuba dive master and was a member of the Canadian freediving team in 2006, 2008 and 2012. Freedivers don’t use tanks for air while diving.
She holds three world records for dynamic apnea freediving, holding her breath for five minutes, 35 seconds and diving up to 200 feet. These days, she can still dive up to 100 feet.
Holding her breath and keeping her mouth closed will come in handy should she encounter the lion’s mane jellyfish, commonly called red jellyfish, during her swim. The native species’ sting generally leads to welts and swelling for a few days.
Her support team will also be monitoring sea conditions, after studying the currents and tides to determine the best time to attempt the crossing.
“It’s a small window of opportunity. If I don’t do it this weekend, we will have to wait for another year to try again,” said Yoneda.
She said her employers at Westheart Cardiology are so supportive, they didn’t just give her the time off — they gave her a stress echocardiogram to make sure her heart could take the strain of the journey.
After getting into the water Friday in Brentwood Bay, Yoneda will head through Sansum Narrows and Porlier Pass before landing at Jericho Beach in Vancouver 40 to 50 hours later.
You can follow her progress by searching for Ocean Adele, her support boat, on Marine Traffic, a ship tracking website, or through her Facebook or Instagram social media pages.
To donate to Jill Yoneda’s Swim for Courage (for Canuck Place), go to my.canuckplace.org/fundraiser/2198984.
