Maya Merhige / Instagram
Maya Merhige is 17 years old and wants to be the youngest person to complete the set of 7 brutal crossings in open waters. Nadou almost 44 kilometers, much at night, and even resisted the biggest enemies: the chains.
“Constantly, some 25 times per minute – Once and again. 14 hours that passed in the Strait of Cooknear New Zealand.
“Even when I was getting into the water, I was already thinking, ‘I’m so afraid. I don’t want to see brains,'” Merhige adds. “That’s why, all the time, I fought mentally to overcome this fear,” he says.
“They are not there if we can’t see them, so I pretend that it is not happening, which helps me turn off my mind a little,” he says about the enemies of his trip, whose constant burns were ignoring.
This is not the first channel where the American teenager nothing: 10 routes have already traveled, including the Moloka’i channel in Hawaii, the Catalina canal off the coast of Los Angeles and the Mancha Channel between England and France.
Now, it plans to be the youngest person ever to go through the Northern Canal, between Ireland and Scotland, the Gibraltar Strait, between Spain and Morocco, and the Tsugaru Strait in Japan. The goal is to complete them Oceans Seven – A series of brutal crossings in open waters around the world.
For this, it means I have to do them until January 2028, ”he explains. “I am very enthusiastic about the ones I have left.”
Merhige was guided by a support boat and paused to receive groceries from her half -hour crew. Says that It was the hardest proof you’ve ever doneand the next day I was not even able to raise my arms.
But he has already faced hard evidence: when he crossed the Tahoe Lake in 2022, for example, the difficulty was such that he began to hallucinating. “I thought it had been kidnapped during part of the crossing, I thought I was swimming with human -size pellet animals,” he recalls.
Now, with agitated seas and strong currentshe spent twice the time of what was supposed in the water to cross the canal from side to side. Nadou almost 44 kilometers. He crossed almost all overnight to avoid sunburn and heat. And he even says he saw fantry stars along the way.
. “I like being so much in the water and I am more and more likely; I have a lot more respect for the ocean and the water than when I started swimming.
“I’ve done so much mental gymnastics in the water that I can adapt to any situation. Even if I’m afraid, I know I can overcome this fear. That’s what keeps me safe and that’s what makes me feel safe.”
