A six member crew of the Indian Navy including two women officers will return home on Tuesday after successfully completing a 17,000 nautical mile long trans-ocean inter-continental voyage in seven months in a sailboat.
The adventurous journey by the team onboard INSV Tarini from Goa to Rio-de-Janeiro comes close on the heels of an epic solo circumnavigation by Commander Abhilash Tomy (rtd) and prepares the ground for the navy to take up the next big challenge - send a woman to an around-the-globe voyage solo.
The flag-in ceremony at Goa on Tuesday would showcase the stories of exemplary valour, courage and perseverance of the crew, especially the two women officers, Lt Cdr Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa A, who participated in the entire expedition, said a navy officer.
The two lady officers undertook the voyage from Goa to Rio-de-Janeiro via Cape Town and back, spanning over 188 days of sailing on the vessel. The male members of the crew joined them in the two legs of the voyage.
The participants in the onward leg from Goa to Rio-de-Janerio were Capt Atool Sinha, Lt Cdr Ashutosh Sharma and Lt Aviral Keshav whereas Cdr Nikhil Hegde, Cdr MA Zulfikar, Cdr Divya Purohit and Cdr AC Doke were the return leg crew.
The sailing expedition is part of the run up towards the navy’s next big project to send a woman to circumnavigate the globe in a solo voyage, said an official.
This comes five years after a six-member women team of the Indian Navy sailed in the same boat in a circumnavigation trip.
The all girls team sailed across four continents and three oceans, passed south of three capes and crossed the Equator twice in a period spanning over eight months in the expedition named Navika Sagar Parikrama.
The long-distance sailing tradition of the Indian Navy began when Captain Dilip Donde circumnavigated the globe in 2009-2010. Subsequently, Cdr Abhilash Tomy was the first Asian skipper to participate in two circumnavigations and suffered serious injuries during the last one.
Last month Tomy became the first Indian to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation of the globe passing the three great capes in a pre-modern era sail boat, five years after he miraculously survived a killer storm that incapacitated him and caused life-threatening injuries.