Update from the Ocean: Dinger's Big Row Wk13
13 Weeks into a solo unsupported row across the Pacific Ocean, Dave “Dinger” Bell wrote something quietly remarkable.
“The first day on the ocean where I’ve felt a real sense of contentment. Not the easiest or best rowing conditions, but an acceptance of what the day had brought me. Happy tapping along, often without a thought in my head.”
From the outside it might look like just another day at sea. But when you are alone on a rowing boat in the middle of the world’s largest ocean, contentment is something you earn stroke by stroke.
Between DIngers feet there's a small blue and black object.. that's the Row It Forward watch, a talismanic time keeper now enjoying it's 10th and hopefully 11th ocean crossing.
By the Thirteenth Week, Dinger has not just been battling wind, swell and fatigue. He has also been regularly escorted and at times stalked by sharks, shadowing the boat as it moves through the deep Pacific. Sometimes they circle. Sometimes they follow for hours. Sometimes they disappear only to return later. When you are alone on a tiny rowing vessel thousands of miles from land, there is nowhere to hide. And still he rows.
Dinger, a Royal Marine veteran of twenty years, launched from Lima, Peru aiming to row seven thousand five hundred nautical miles across the Pacific. Alone and unsupported with no resupply, no escort and no margin for error. His target is around two hundred days at sea, raising funds and awareness for Rock2Recovery, a charity helping veterans and first responders overcome trauma and rebuild their lives.
And even that may only be part one
As he approaches Australia, Dinger plans a mind, body and boat check. If everything holds together physically, mentally and mechanically, he will not stop. Instead he will push through the Torres Strait, follow the north coast of Australia and then head out across the Indian Ocean toward Mauritius. If he completes it, the scale of his endeavour will be mind blowing:
- Fourteen thousand five hundred nautical miles
- Up to three hundred and fifty days at sea
- The longest ocean row in history
Along the way he will face uncharted reefs and atolls, violent surf zones, shifting currents, cyclone driven weather systems and the psychological weight of almost a year in isolation. He fuels this effort with more than five thousand calories a day, but the real engine is something far less measurable.
As Dinger says,
“The rewards come from the toil of trying.”
A Day in the Life of 13 Weeks From Land.
Dinger’s update offers a rare window into what that toil really looks like.
Each morning begins the same way. He emerges from the cabin with a coffee, a handful of snacks and his phone. He rows for several hours in silence, tuning into the day by assessing the wind direction, swell and current. He checks his heading and sends a message to his shore team with weather details and the speed he can realistically hold.
Between shorter stints on the oars he handles the unglamorous but essential routines. Washing coffee cups and breakfast pots. Using the bucket. Applying bum butter to protect his skin. Keeping the boat moving forward. Cleaning the boat of suicidal flying fish who sometimes inundate it.
Then comes a few hours of music, podcasts and voice notes from friends and family, followed by the hardest part of the day.
“I might get a bit bored and edgy for a couple of hours while I slog away and get the late afternoon out of the way.”
What gets him through is the promise of the evening call home and his main meal.
“Finally I can eat and call. Always the highlight of my day.”
After that, he heads back out for another sixty to ninety minutes on the oars, often with sharks gliding silently beneath the hull, before shutting the boat down for the night. Autopilot on. Instruments off. Snack wrappers cleared away. Dinner pots washed. A shower. Aloe vera for salt soaked skin. An episode of Peaky Blinders. Then sleep.
Tomorrow, it all begins again.
Dinger's mission is extraordinary, our role is to bring you updates along the way and ask for your help, your role is to share with as many people as you can to help drum up support for Dinger and Rock2Recovery his chosen charity. Thank you!
You can follow Dinger's Big Row here
