Solo Rower In French Polynesia Headed To Australia
(Tahitipresse)
Alex Bellini, who is rowing across the Pacific Ocean from
Bellini, who set out on Feb. 21 planning to reach Sydney sometime in December, was 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Tuamotu atoll of Manihi on Tuesday, moving at an average speed of four kilometers (2.5 miles) per hour, the MRCC said in a communiqué.
The rower spent 136 days at sea not having seen any sign of human life for four months until he recently encountered the Tahitian fishing boat Lady Chris, the MRCC reported.
A French Navy search and rescue plane flew over the Italian rower aboard his boat Rosa Atacama II on Friday and talked with Bellini via radio. The 13-minute conversation was in Italian because the parents of the plane's captain are Italian, the MRCC reported.
The communiqué described the rower's moral as excellent and his main concern was his jar of Parmesan cheese was emptying too quickly.
Bellini is trying to row across 18,000 kilometers (10,000 nautical miles) of the Pacific in a record-setting nine months. In 2005 he successfully rowed the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean from
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