After sailing 17,000 nautical miles across the oceans in six months, an Indian Navy sailboat is set to return home Tuesday, the Navy announced Saturday.
The sailboat, INSV Tarini, features a six-member crew, including two women officers – lieutenant commanders Dilna K and Roopa A.
The two women were the only officers who participated in all 188 days of the globetrotting journey, which took them from Goa to Rio de Janeiro via Cape Town and back. INSV Tarini had set sail from Goa in November 2022.
“The other participants include the onward leg crew from Goa to Rio de Janeiro comprising Capt Atool Sinha, Lt Cdr Ashutosh Sharma and Lt Aviral Keshav, and the return leg crew comprising Cdr Nikhil Hegde, Cdr MA Zulfikar, Cdr Divya Purohit and Cdr AC Doke,” the Navy said in a statement.
In light of the achievement of the officers, the Indian Navy will welcome INSV Tarini with a “Flag-In” ceremony at the Indian Naval Watermanship Training Centre (INWTC) at INS Mandovi in Goa.
According to the Navy, the guest of honour at the ceremony will be Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, while Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant will be the chief guest. Chief of Naval Staff Adm R. Hari Kumar and former captain of the Indian women’s national hockey team Rani Rampal will also be present at the ceremony.
INSV Tarini’s extensive voyage not only reinforces the Navy’s broader mission to “promote ocean sailing in a big way” but also forms part of the Navy’s goal to “send a woman to circumnavigate the globe solo”. The first Indian man to achieve this feat was Captain Dilip Donde in 2009-10, the Navy said.
It also revealed that a “rigorous” selection process had been conducted for the INSV Tarini mission at Ocean Sailing Node in INS Mandovi. “This expedition was conducted under the aegis of Indian Naval Sailing Association based at New Delhi,” the statement added.
Earlier this year, in April, retired Indian naval officer Cdr Abhilash Tomy was the runners-up in the 2022 edition of the Golden Globe Race, a prestigious solo around-the-world sailing event that traces its history to the late 1960s.