Indian Navy's first all-women crew welcomed post circumnavigating the globe, expedition took over 8 months

Panaji: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Indian Navy chief admiral Sunil Lanba welcomed the Indian Navy's six member all-women crew who arrived after circumnavigating the globe in over eight months on board the naval vessel INSV Tarini.

file image of all women crew of INS Tarini. Twitter @indiannavy

The expedition, christened 'Navika Sagar Parikrama', was flagged off from the INS Mandovi boat pool on 10 September last year.

Led by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, the crew had Lieutenant Commanders Pratibha Jamwal and Swati P, and Lieutenants Aishwarya Boddapati, S Vijaya Devi and Payal Gupta as other members.

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They completed the feat in the 55 foot sailing vessel, INSV Tarini, which was inducted into the Indian Navy on 18 February last year.

It was the first ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew, the navy said. The six women officers trained for the project under Captain Dilip Donde, the first Indian to solo-circumnavigate the globe from 19 August, 2009 to 19 May, 2010 on-board the Indian built vessel INSV Mhadei, a Navy official said.

A navy spokesperson said that the expedition was completed in six legs, with stop overs at the Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falkland Islands), Cape Town (South Africa) and Mauritius.

"The crew covered 21,600 nautical miles in the Indian built sailing vessel INSV Tarini that visited five countries and crossed the Equator twice. It sailed across four continents and three oceans, and passed south of the three Great Capes—Leeuwin, Horn and Good Hope," the spokesperson said.