Reuters
posted: 21 HOURS 26 MINUTES AGO
SYDNEY (Dec. 13) - An Italian adventurer rescued near exhaustion after 10 months rowing the Pacific solo said on Saturday he did not feel like a loser and never felt alone during his voyage due to thousands of e-mails from fans.
Alex Bellini, 30, set off from Lima, Peru in February and finally called off his trip on Friday, just 65 nautical miles from Australia's east coast. During that time he lived on dried food and distilled seawater and did not set foot on land once.
However, Bellini told Reuters it would have been foolish not to have called for help on Friday.
"I am pretty satisfied. I am fulfilled," he said. "Obviously I was dreaming about a different way to make the last point.
"I did not fail," he said, saying he had merely "asked for a tow" for the last few miles.
Bellini said it had been "quite a hard decision but it was a wise decision" to call for help, with predictions of poor weather for the next two days at a point where he was nearly exhausted.
The Italian, who has already rowed the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and walked across Alaska twice pulling a sled, said he was proud of the epic 11,000-mile non-stop journey and his fans' e-mails kept him going.
"I received more than 30,000 emails on my satphone. It has been not really a one-man adventure. I was alone at sea, but I was not completely alone," he said.
Late on Friday, with the eastern Australian town of Laurieton almost insight, 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 Bellini up late on Friday at around 4 p.m. local time.
"The solo rower is reported to be in a good condition but extremely exhausted," the police statement said.
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 33 pounds 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.
Despite his ordeal, Francesca Bellini, who helped organise the voyage, said her husband loved the sea and would have fond recollections of the trip. 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.
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."
Bellini said, however, he had promised his wife that he would not attempt to do it again.
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