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“I must admit that the idea of ‘adventure’ has undergone a drastic change after I performed the non-stop. Adventure, for me, would be to do anything beyond what you thought you were capable of. For my mother, it was something as simple as getting on an escalator on her own.”
- Abhilash Tomy
Once upon a time, there was a man who made Indian maritime history as the first Indian to successfully complete a solo, non-stop circumnavigation trip in 151 days. Homegrown caught up with the pathbreaking Lt. Commander Abhilash Tomy to document his epic adventure, as a part of which he sailed around 23,100 nautical miles on board INSV Mhadei, from November 2012 to March 31, 2013, during mission Sagar Parikrama-II, with thousands of followers keeping up with the journey on social media.
A task involving great physical and mental endurance, and technological know-how, he was even felicitated by the President of India with the Kirti Chakra, the nation’s second highest peacetime gallantry medal, on Independence Day last year. The more we dug, it quickly became apparent that his affair with the sea has been long-standing. “It goes back further than I can remember,” he begins.
Since his father was in the navy, Tomy has ended up living close to the sea all his life. ‘Trishna – First Indian Sailing Expedition Around The World 1985-1987’ was a documentary that he saw as a kid, and most of the books he read were English classics about sea adventures. His first visit to a sailing club induced a strange sense of déjà vu, an intuition that he was meant to be around boats all his life. Although he got through engineering and medical colleges, Tomy opted for the Indian Navy after his Class XII, opening his own door to an unprecedented adventure.
“My own circumnavigation was a lot easier than it should have been, thanks to Commander Dilip Donde.”
The intention behind the Indian Navy’s Sagar Parikrama 2 mission, was to draw the attention of people of the country towards the oceans and encourage the youth to look at the navy as a career option. The preceding Sagar Parikrama 1, under Commander Dilip Donde, had tasted success with a solo circumnavigation as well, albeit with stops. Tomy assisted the commander as shore support, visiting him in each port and helping him with the repairs and preparation of the boat for the next leg. He accords a lot of his experience with regard to the boat, its systems and intricacies, to this mission working under Donde, whom he clearly holds in his regard – describing him as someone who ‘has immense amounts of patience, is very brave, physically strong, morally upright, forthright and honest, and has a way of solving the most difficult problems through sheer perseverance.’ He adds,“I also saw the immense amount of pressure he was under and how he dealt with it, and when he was sailing around the world, I was mentally with him thanks to the fantastic blog that he maintained. Thanks to all that, my own circumnavigation was a lot easier than it should have been.”
Tomy’s average day aboard INSV Mhadei would begin at about sunrise, with meditation and a light breakfast, usually milk and muesli or rusk. Weather predictions were the basis on which he would plan the next few days, downloaded weather data helping him work out the details. Morning reports to the naval headquarters would be followed by a round of the boat and routine maintenance work like charging the batteries, making water, cleaning up the boat, mending torn sails, servicing the generator and other equipment, repairing ropes, doing carpentry work, navigation, changing sail configuration or trimming the sails etc. would go on all through the day.
“I did not have to deal with solitude. I love being alone.”
Noon would find Tomy recording the position of the boat in the log and by evening, the second set of weather reports would come in, just in time for the 2000 hrs report back to the naval headquarters. In the middle of all of this, Tomy would figure out how to keep himself well-fed, considering the cooking for himself is something he really had to get used to.
His days would also be filled giving interviews, updating his blog and Facebook page, editing photographs and videos and posting them, even if he was in the middle of a storm.
The thought of being aboard a boat alone for such an extended period of time might sound like a Life of Pi-induced nightmare to many – minus the tiger (or was it a tiger?) but Abhilash Tomy was completely at ease with being by himself at sea for approximately five months.
“I did not have to deal with solitude. I love being alone. The circumnavigation was an excuse for me to enjoy time with myself,” he explains. “All the extremes that I faced were outside me. Temperatures in the voyage ranged from 40deg at the Equator to 4deg at Cape Horn. I had no arrangement for cooling (no fan or AC or fridge) and a very rudimentary arrangement for heating which I could not run all the while due to fuel considerations,” says Tomy, speaking about the highs and lows during the voyage. “I used to be almost four layers of thick clothing all the while in the southern ocean and I had to forgo a bath for 50 days at a stretch.”
“Ultimately, my aim was to get as many Indians introduced to the sea and oceans in one way or the other.”
The storms, he recalls, used to be pretty bad. There was a cyclone in the Arabian Sea on the day he left, quite benign by the standards of what he was to see later. In the Southern Ocean, he was subjected to cold fronts that would hit me at a frequency of one per week bringing with it huge amounts of winds. When he crossed the International Date Line on Jan 1, he had about 50 kn winds, off Falklands he had about 60 knots and rounding Cape of Good Hope he had about 70 knots.
Towards the end of the voyage, Tomy was left with just one bucket of water for 15 days, running out due to a combination of equipment failure and diesel contamination.
Upon his return to Mumbai, the Gateway of India from which he had sailed, Tomy received a hero’s welcome. Since India doesn’t have a history of ocean sailing in the past, his was a truly landmark achievement that put the country on the maritime map, so to speak.
“Ultimately, my aim is to get as many Indians introduced to the sea and oceans in one way or the other,” says Tomy. “The Indian Navy is at present encouraging women to take up sailing. That would be a big step forward. Another thing I want to do is to get involved in ocean racing which should further capture the imagination of the youth.”
Abhilash Tomy has co-authored ‘151’, a pictorial book on the voyage, along with Lynn D’souza, ex-Chairman and CEO of Lintas Media Group. After his return, she suggested the idea to put it together, and got all the photographs, blog excerpts, facebook posts from fans etc. together into one seamless narration. According to Tomy, “It was all her effort.”
Released on 17 Dec, 2013, by Dr Pallam Raju, the then Union HRD minister, a copy of the book was presented the very next day to the President of India, Dr Pranab Mukherjee.
Quick Questions
Was there any kind of food that you particularly craved during your trip?
Popcorn.
Did you have any music for the voyage?
I did, but I rarely listened
What became your favourite read?
Reading One Hundred Years of Solitude for the nth time.
Where is the INSV Mhadei now?
In Goa, getting ready for her next voyage.
Your first thoughts when you saw the Gateway of India at the end of the journey?
Satisfaction and sorrow.
And with that, Abhilash Tomy signs off with the promise of more adventures to come.
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