Now, Navy wants a woman to sail around the world solo

PANAJI: Even as former Naval officer Abhilash Tomy was racing around the world in the solo, non-stop longest endurance race on the planet, the Indian Navy embarked on an ambitious project to send a woman officer to undertake an around the world journey all by herself.
"After a tough selection process, we shortlisted two and they have been going through their training phases," said a senior naval officer.
The Navy has shortlisted Lt Commander Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa Alagirisamy. They have already sailed about 17,000 nautical miles, including a Tran-Atlantic crossing. One of them will finally undertake the challenging expedition.
What makes the attempt incredible is that the two women picked up sailing just two years ago.
Dilna is a logistics officer with the Navy, while Roopa is a naval armament inspection officer. The two are presently posted at the Ocean Sailing Node, INS Mandovi in Goa.
The Navy's move comes on the back of the success of Navika Sagar Parikrama, when six women officers sailed around the world. In the two years that Dilna and Roopa picked up sailing, they already have over 21,800 nautical miles under their sail, same as the distance covered during Navika Sagar Parikrama.
'Two women officers were part of full voyage, sailed 17,000 nautical miles'
A six-member crew, including Dilna and Roopa, recently par-ticipated in the most prestigious Trans-Atlantic Ocean race-the Cape 2 Rio race-which requires yachts to race from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro. The crew is expected to return to Goa on May 24.
The two women, along with other experienced sailors, are sailing aboard the 17m-long, INSV Tarini, which was built at Divar-based Aquarius Shipyard.
The first phase of the training for the two consisted of coastal sailing with expeditions to Kochi, Visakhapatnam and Mauritius.
The crew then left for Rio De Janeiro on November 17 and reached Cape Town on Christmas Day.
"The two women officers have been part of the complete voyage. The other four crew members changed at Rio De Janeiro. It is very significant that they have sailed about 17,000 nautical miles," said the Navy officer.
During the Trans-Atlantic race and on their voyage back to Goa, the crew encountered storms with a sea state of 6 and 7 and wind speeds gusting to over 60 knots.
"The boat also went through a very rough patch of weather for two days while she was south of Madagascar, which they very skillfully negotiated. The boat did experience many material defects and damages to the sails, which they handled well," said the official.
In 2017-18, a team of six women officers completed a circumnavigation, which commenced and ended at INS Mandovi. For Navika Sagar Parikrama, the Navy picked Lt Cdr Vartika Joshi, Lt Cdr Payal Gupta, Lt Cdr Pratibha Jamwal, Lt Cdr P Swathi, Lt Aishwarya Boddapati, and Lt Shourgrakpam Vijaya Devi from close to 500 applicants and trained them for nearly three years.
Captain Dilip Donde is the first Indian to complete a solo, unassisted circumnavigation of the globe under sail and he was followed by Commander (retd) Abhilash Tomy, who was the first Indian to complete a solo, non-stop circumnavigation in INSV Mhadei.