WATCH: Royal Marine veteran Dave 'Dinger' Bell adds 1,000 miles to ocean row for Exeter charity

The WhatsApp message ‘pinged’ into life at breakfast time a few days ago as I got a voice message from Dave ‘Dinger’ Bell somewhere in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar. This locally based Royal Marine veteran with 20 years of service is on a mission to take on something never done before: rowing a phenomenal journey of 7,500 nautical miles, solo and unsupported.

He left Lima in Peru on 9th November 2025, with his initial goal being to cross the entire Pacific Ocean. He then planned to take stock, at sea, of his own health and that of his 8.3-metre carbon fibre boat ‘Billy No Mates’ in order that he might continue.

The boat was fine, Dinger was fine… so he pressed on. This paper has followed him across the huge stretch of water that is the Pacific, around the top of Australia, squeezing through the Torres Strait, before continuing across the wild Indian Ocean towards the finishing line in Mauritius by mid-October 2026. This should have been achieved in something like 350 days—the longest ocean row of all time. But the voice message that he sent me changed all that and was confirmation of an incredible decision.

‘Hi Fitz… people are saying I am mad, but I have decided to miss out Mauritius and head for Kenya and add another 1000 miles to the journey, but to be honest I never lost sight of wanting to get there anyway.’

I must admit that I replayed the beginning several times to make sure I heard correctly, but his voice was as clear as a bell… no pun intended. He continued.

‘When I first started looking at this a couple of years ago, we were always trying to work out how to get to Kenya. I wanted to do the row continent to continent. But when we looked at the storm seasons, the cyclone seasons, and how far I thought I could row each day, we came to the decision that we didn’t think it was possible. The mistake we made with the planning was with the weight… the concern about being so heavy and thus how far I could row in a day. Remember when I set off from Lima with 350 days’ worth of food, which was about 400 kg to 500 kg, plus a year’s worth of everything else that I needed, like gas, a year’s worth of suncream, toothpaste… the list goes on, I was really bulky. But what we didn’t do was adjust the daily mileage and take into consideration that I was getting lighter day after day as I used the stores. Now sat here at the other end of this journey, recording this to you, I’ve probably got 40 days’ worth of food, and I am in a pure carbon fibre boat… so I’m a flying machine. Plus, the weather is in the right direction, so I’m doing some big mileages. As I have crossed the Indian Ocean, I’ve noticed that I’m getting faster and faster. So, I said to my weather router to just have another look at Mombasa and see if you think it’s possible. Realistically Mauritius has been out for a few weeks, but it came to a point on Monday when The Seychelles became too far north as well, so I had to commit to Mombasa. I am making some really great mileage; I think I did something like 70 nautical in one day, firstly because the weather is good and because I’m in such a light boat now.’

His voice was laid back and ‘matter of fact’. It seemed blissfully simple to add 1,000 miles to the journey, but surely there are major issues to take into consideration and not just the logistical side of things back in the UK. He answered my question without me asking it.

‘It does come with challenges. I can hit islands, atolls, and reefs on the way, and in addition there are some very strong currents that I’ve got to negotiate which will help me potentially in the early stages, but then when I’m actually trying to make a last attempt to get to the coast, it’s going to be quite difficult. There is even a chance that I could be swept past Kenya, with the next stop being… Somalia. I’m excited, but yes, I’m out here for another three weeks… an extra three weeks… I will make it.’

The message stopped with a heartfelt thank you for everyone who is supporting him. Dinger is raising money for the Exeter-based CIC Rock 2 Recovery, a blue light and military charity dealing with mental health. So far over £33,000 has been pledged on sportsgiving.co.uk.

The facts behind this feat are also incredible; for example, the boat is only about 28 feet long. It carries around 4,000 different food items and he requires a minimum of 5,000 calories per day. He must clean the hull mid-ocean, despite a fear of open water and the unwanted attention of sharks! He carries a full medical kit for every eventuality, but thankfully has not needed to use much of that equipment.

He has tried to row for 10–12 hours a day and sleep around 8 hours. He uses a ‘parachute’ anchor during heavy weather, which has struck several times, knocking out the power which is vital as the communication, navigation, and the machine to convert seawater into drinking water all rely on solar panels at the rear of the vessel.

We look forward to welcoming him back to the West Country and will be talking to ‘Dinger’ very soon. I look forward to meeting him for the first time rather than having satellite link conversations over thousands of miles.