After the appointment of India’s first woman Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, India continued to make waves with news of the six woman navy crew who were set to sail on September 10 from Goa to circumnavigate the globe in a gruelling expedition. Termed as the Navika Sagar Parikrama, the journey will see them cover more than 21,600 nautical miles in eight months.
The expedition was flagged off by none other than Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the INS Mandovi Boat Pool. “This is not an occasion which can happen once in five years, once in 10 years. This is a historic day for India. A historic day, which will be marked in navigation history and globally. Our women are going to stand out for doing something which mostly wouldn’t even have been thought of,” reported Hindu quoting Ms. Sitharaman.
The expedition is set to happen in five legs in the Indian Navy Sailing Vessel (INSV) Tarini, a 17 metre long, five metres wide vessel built at Goa’s Aquarius Shipyard. With stop-overs at four ports Fremantle, Australia; Lyttleton, New Zealand; Port Stanley, the Falklands; and Cape town, South Africa) for replenishment of ration and repairs, the crew will return to Goa in April 2018.
Out of the 20 women who volunteered, 6 women were finally selected out of which two are naval architects, two are air traffic control officers and the remaining are from the navy’s education branch. The expedition is being captained by lieutenant commander Vartika Joshi, other crew members are lieutenant commanders Pratibha Jamwal and P Swathi and lieutenants S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta.
The women have taken many preparatory measures. They have sailed on INSV Mhadei to Mauritius and back and have been trained to deal with equipment breakdown, extreme temperatures to emergencies such as a crew member falling overboard. “We will be facing some of the roughest seas on the planet. We learnt everything from scratch and have trained to handle whatever may come our way,” reported HT, quoting Vartika Joshi.
The women are being mentored by captain Dilip Donde (retd) and commander Abhilash Tomy, both who completed solo circumnavigation on INSV Mhadei in 2009-10 and 2012-13. The navy will track the voyage to ensure the safety of the crew.
The Navy release said that the sailing encourages the use of environment friendly non-conventional renewable energy resources which affects the life of women. The expedition thereby aims at harnessing the energy to optimise the livelihood of the women on board. Lt Cdr Joshi told the Hindu, “As we are going as sailors, and we as sailors have seen that the sea does not discriminate between genders. It is always gender-neutral and we have realised that gender does not play a role in sailing. But to boost morale in the country and for more women to take part in adventures like sailing, I feel it is great that an all-woman team has been formed.”
To know more about the expedition, read the full report by Hindustan Times here.
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