Around the world in 8 months, Navy women create history

| MAY 22, 2018, 07:46 PM IST

the goan I network

PANAJI

254 days -- 194 of them at sea and 21,600 nautical miles six women of the Indian Navy have made history by becoming the first all-women crew to sail around the world.    

Flagged off by Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, back on September 10 last year the six-member crew of INSV Tarini captained by Lt Cdr Vartika Joshi, and including Lt Cdr Pratibha Jamwal, Lt Cdr Patarapalli Swathi, Lt Aishwarya Boddapati, Lt Sh Vijaya Devi and Lt Payal Gupta -- was welcomed back home by the same Defence Minister Sitharaman after the eight-month long arduous journey.  

“I just don’t want to say it gives me pleasure, I feel very honoured and very humbled by the great achievement of these six wonderful girls. I feel I’ve been fortunate that just three days after my being given the responsibility of Raksha Mantri, my first out of Delhi appointment was to be here to flag off their circumnavigation and today by the grace of God and the grit and the courage that the girls have shown they are back home here to join us having made history and its just so fortuitous that I’m here back again to receive them. I feel extremely honoured and I repeated I feel humbled to receive them,” Sitharaman said in her comments after welcoming the team back on land.  

The team of six was escorted as they sailed through the Mandovi for their final moments not just by a Navy chopper and other windsurfers of the navy but also by a MiG29K flyby in formation by the Indian Navy to coincide right at the moment they touched home.  

Circumnavigation around the globe was divided into five legs -- Goa to Fremantle (Australia), Fremantle to Lyttelton (New Zealand), Lyttelton to the Falklands through the Straits of Magellan past Cape Horn and Falklands to Cape Town and finally Cape Town to Goa.  

Captain Vartika Joshi admitted that it was Leg III from Lyttelton to the Falklands was the toughest not only being the longest but also where they “encountered hurricane force winds right before crossing Cape Horn.”  

“The initial journey was a slow transit across the Northern Hemisphere, but it soon turned into a quick wind after we celebrated the crossing of the equator. We went through gale force winds and seas of over five metres and this leg turned out to be an eye-opener for us for all the legs that we were going to encounter,” Joshi told the gathering.  

Along the way, on the final leg of their journey, they encountered a breakdown of their steering gear and needed to break course towards Port Louis in Mauritius, until a replacement arrived and they could continue their journey onwards to Goa.  

“The voyage was primarily aimed to empower women, to attain their full potential also showcasing Nari Shakti on a global platform. It also showcased the make in India initiative of the government and also brought about the point that we can use eco-friendly sources of energy into practice,” Joshi said.

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