Bell tries to repeat historic swim

Turning 70 today, James H. Bell will attempt to repeat his feat of nearly three decades ago by swimming across the Tinian channel.

In July 1981, Bell marked his retirement from the U.S. Navy by swimming alone from Saipan to Tinian. He now wants to celebrate another milestone in his life—his 70th birthday—by swimming the same waters in the opposite direction.

“I want this adventure to be the beginning of the rest of my life. And what better place to start than where I left off 27 years ago?” he said yesterday.

Bell found his love of the open water in the early 1970s. He was on active duty with the U.S. Navy in Hawaii, and spent much of his leisure time snorkeling or scuba diving.

His military job next brought him to Guam, where he would undertake his first major swimming “project.” Every Saturday beginning in the early part of 1980, he swam four to eight miles around the island’s shoreline. Before the year ended, he had swum all around the island.

Bell said his Guam adventure was miraculous. “Completing it was more than a test of endurance. There were so much danger, so many things about the shoreline of the Guam reef that made it almost impossible,” he said.

But the danger only fueled his desire for adventure. In April 1981, he took leave from the Navy to swim the Tinian channel. The military initially approved his request for time off, but withdrew its permission after learning of Bell’s plan to swim the channel alone. At the time, Bell was only a few months away from retirement. He decided to wait.

His chance came on July 2, 1981, his second day as a civilian. Bell braved the choppy waters between Saipan and Tinian with little clue about the surf and tides, much less a clear strategy for getting around them. The only thing he was sure of was his goal, and that is to get to the other side, alive.

“I make it a point of not over-researching things. I like the challenge of the unknown. I prefer figuring things out as I get there,” Bell said.

A few things did go wrong. He had planned to swim up the channel and avoid being swept out to the ocean. After swimming for a couple of hours, he ended up miles out in the ocean and had to spend the rest of day swimming back to Tinian. He also had originally projected the swim to take about 12 hours, but at the last minute told people he would be done in six hours. When he did not show up on the Tinian shore at the expected time, a search and rescue mission was launched. Even the press joined the search, with then Pacific Daily News stringer Jack Angello renting an aircraft to survey the waters.

Bell was found eventually, and finished what he set out to do. After 12 hours of swimming, he reached a beach not too far from Tinian’s North Field.

“My feeling was pure exhilaration. It was not really relief that I was out of danger’s way. It was pleasing to know that I had the endurance to do what I did. I felt good about setting a goal and having accomplished it,” said Bell.

That great adventure was his last in a very long time. Save for climbing a few mountains in Colorado, Bell had done nothing he would describe as spectacular since the Tinian channel. After retiring from the Navy at age 43, he did not settle in any second career. Instead, he volunteered his service to the Mormon church, tried to earn a master’s degree in geology, and held various odd jobs.

As he now enters his eighth decade, however, Bell wants to see if he’s still got the resolve that pushed him across the Tinian channel 27 years ago. But his plan goes beyond duplicating his earlier feat. To make his latest effort even more interesting, he will start swimming at 7am today from his previous ending point, and attempt to make it to Saipan—anywhere on Saipan—in eight hours.

Ever the daredevil, he is not checking the tide charts nor calling for a safety escort. “There’s more incentive if you know you have to make it because your life is on the line,” he said.

Bell expects the strong current and the jellyfish to pose the biggest challenge to his mission. But he would rather keep his eyes on the rewards: a possible next swim across the Torres Strait between Papua New Guinea and Australia, and some serious suntan.