An Italian adventurer was reunited with his family in Australia on Saturday after just failing to row solo across the Pacific from Peru, his wife said.
Alex Bellini (30) lived on dried food and distilled seawater for nearly 10 months in his epic 18 000km non-stop voyage.
On arrival at the Australian port of Newcastle on Saturday morning, Bellini was greeted by his wife and waiting media. Looking thin, and heavily bearded, he had lost 15kg during the journey, which started in Lima on February 21, his wife Francesca Bellini said.
”He was looking confused. He had to be carried by someone to get to the Customs,” she told Reuters.
Late on Friday, just 65 nautical miles away from the eastern Australian town of Laurieton, Bellini contacted his wife, and asked her to call for help as he did not think he could make it, Australian police said.
According to police, Bellini was ”nearing exhaustion”.
Police sent a vessel and Australian Search and Rescue dispatched an aircraft. A New Zealand registered tug boat in the area was directed to assist, and picked up Bellini late on Friday at about 4pm local time (6am GMT).
”The solo rower is reported to be in a good condition but extremely exhausted,” the police statement said.
Despite his ordeal, Francesca Bellini, who helped organise the voyage, said her husband loved the sea and would have fond recollections of the trip.
”He will just have good memories,” she said.
Bellini, who had previously canoed across the Atlantic, took about 300kg of dried food with him when he left Peru. He did not set foot on dry land during the voyage and was totally alone for most of the time. He carried equipment with him to distill seawater for drinking.
Although he failed to reach dry land, his wife said they still regarded it as essentially a full crossing of the Pacific Ocean.
He is not, however, the first person to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.
Asked why her husband did it, Francesca Bellini said: ”He is an extreme sportsman. He is not a ‘record man’. He is just doing it for himself.”
Apart from crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Bellini has also rowed across the Mediterranean and walked across Alaska twice, his wife said. – Reuters