The frustration of the long-distance rower
This story was frustrating to even read about.
Italian Alex Bellini set out to row across the Pacific from Peru to Australia. To contemplate the execution of this sort of feat is beyond the comprehension of most people—certainly beyond mine—and to achieve it requires a force of will and an ability to endure that is extraordinary. Actually, I think it can sometimes border on the pathologically obsessional. A person has to be able to judge when enough is enough.
Bellini apparently made that judgment. He rowed almost the entire distance of 9,500 nautical miles for ten months before giving up. Yes, he gave up—within sixty-five nautical miles of his goal.
Nowadays, even solo adventurers such as Bellini are in some sort of contact with the outside world, and he “contacted his wife Friday to say he was too exhausted to row his 25-foot (7.5 meter) boat any further, despite being nearly in sight of the eastern Australian town of Laurieton.”
It’s that “nearly in sight” part that made me gnash my teeth. I can only imagine how wiped out Bellini must have been to have abandoned his goal when he was so close to achieving it. I would dearly love to have been able to listen in on that conversation with his wife, though.
Was it too far to send for a supply of 5 Hour Energy Drink? The only thing more bizarre than the attempted feat is that his wife let him attempt it.
You picked a wonderful subject. Bellini’s audacity, grit, and perseverance are an inspiration. Physically demanding pursuits are enjoyable precisely because they challenge the mind and character. Tackling an easily surmountable obstacle is not rewarding; pushing one’s limits beyond the point of quitting is very gratifying.
We all have our limits. It’s just that so few take the time to find and push those limits. Bellini is to be applauded for even trying such a feat. He may have failed his ultimate goal, but he succeeded in making a phenomenal attempt at an incredible endeavor. There is no shame or failure in that, but satisfaction that you gave your all and held back nothing.
He set his sights beyond what he could achieve, while the rest of us are content to only try things that we know we can do. Teddy Roosevelt has some familiar words on this subject:
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
I just looked at Bellini’s website, and from his point of view the crossing was succesfull in spite of his not making landfall unaided. Considering the distance involved, it’s hard to argue the point. Speaking as one who has “bonked” in a 50 K running race and was forced to stop for food (I did complete the distance) I can say that there are times when the body speaks louder than the mind. Enough is enough. Looking at it another way, climbers who have been forced to turn back short of the summit of Everest look at their experience as a success. After all, they aren’t dead!
This New England guy was pretty amazing too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Blackburn
http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Voyager-Extraordinary-Adventures-Gloucester/dp/0684872633
from a review:
“Howard Blackburn was one cool dude! I mean the guy gets caught away from the mother ship and rows for 5 days to live but it costs him all his fingers and that’s just the first two chapters! You’ve got him going off to the Yukon on a gold rush jaunt, a couple of single handed trips across the Atlantic. A circumnavigation of the Eastern US via the Great Lakes and the Misissippi River and around Florida. He just won’t quit.”
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
Yeah, but you still gotta know how my joy it gives me, sitting here in my nice warm robe in my nice warm house in front of my nice warm computer with a nice warm irish coffee, to say:
FAIL! HAHAHAHA!
“Howard Blackburn was one cool dude! I mean the guy gets caught away from the mother ship and rows for 5 days to live but it costs him all his fingers and that’s just the first two chapters! You’ve got him going off to the Yukon on a gold rush jaunt
Well, he certainly didn’t have to worry about losing his fingers….
Again.
Neo, why didn’t he get some sleep or food or whatever? Or was he worried he would go overboard in a storm while sleeping and die?
Awwww…. FAIL!
Hahahahah!
(yep, it’s still fun)
“Touching the Void” is a great movie to rent about this subject of unbelievable perseverance.
Perhaps it was that he had contact with the outside world that caused him to give up. Would he have died without that particular safety net or would he have dug down deeper for the last 65nm?
It’s impossible to predict since it is so dependent on who the individual is, though adventurers throughout history have gone on when their only choices are to continue/finish or turn around and go all the way back.
Considering how far his character was able to drive him, I think he would have finished had he no escape hatch.
Kalroy
Contact with the outside world may have indeed played a part. Not only was he still 65 miles from landfall, but he’d been rowing for two days essentially to hold position, and saw that the weather was going to hold or get worse for him for another few days. Knowing that (rather than having to wonder) may have made the difference.