After sailing for over 23,400 nautical miles around the globe in eight months, braving treacherous waters, stormy weather, cyclones and passing through the three great capes, two women officers of the Indian Navy aboard INSV Tarini, are on the brink of scripting history to become the first team of double-handed circumnavigators from India.
INSV Tarini, which embarked on a historic sailing expedition from Goa on October 2 last year to circumnavigate the globe without external assistance and relying solely on wind power, is approaching Goa’s coastline and is expected to dock soon. The flag-in ceremony for the expedition is scheduled for Thursday at the Mormugao Port Trust, where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to be present.
On completion of the voyage, the two sailors, Lieutenant Commander Roopa A and Lieutenant Commander Dilna K, will be the first from India to circumnavigate the globe onboard a sailing vessel in double-handed mode, which means having a crew of two sailors.
“INSV Tarini is approaching near Goa’s coast. It will arrive soon,” an official said.
The voyage had several legs with stopovers at ports for replenishment of supplies and maintenance. In the first leg, the vessel sailed from Goa to Fremantle, Australia, where it had a stopover. In the subsequent legs, the crew docked at Lyttelton Port in New Zealand; Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands; and Cape Town in South Africa, before sailing back to Goa in the final leg.
During the voyage, the vessel experienced three cyclones while passing through ‘Point Nemo’, referred to as the ‘Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility’. In mid-February, the crew crossed Cape Horn, located at the southern tip of South America just over 800 km from Antarctica, braving persistent rain, strong wind and waves more than five metres tall. This earned them the title ‘Cape Horners’ — a designation traditionally given to seafarers who successfully navigate Cape Horn under sail.
During the port call at Cape Town last month, the naval officers interacted with the university teachers and students, and recounted some of the lessons learnt during their expedition.
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Lt Cdr Dilna K told the gathering, “There are moments when there is no wind and we have to be very patient to go through such situations. When [we] feel that things may go out of our control, we tell ourselves that we have to take things one at a time… Instead of thinking about the entire journey, we just have to focus on that particular moment, so that one can go through. That is one thing we have learnt. And belief in ourselves. We have started believing in ourselves. We know what we are capable of.”
“We are very exhausted. It’s just the two of us in the boat… We have to be the engineer, the electrician, the carpenter…we have to do sail settings, see the weather… We had some equipment failures on board, which we have to deal with ourselves,” she had said.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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