Female naval officers seek to become first Indian duo to sail around the world

Two female officers from the Indian Navy have embarked on a mission to circumnavigate the world, setting sail from a port in Goa on Wednesday.

During the eight-month journey, Lt Cdr Roopa A and Lt Cdr Dilna K will cover approximately 21,600 nautical miles (about 40,000km) on board their Indian Naval Sailing Vessel, which was flagged off at 11am with a small ceremony.

If successful, they will become the first Indians to circumnavigate the world in a double-handed sailing vessel.

Chosen from a pool of 17 candidates, both officers have dedicated the past three years to rigorous preparation. “There are a lot of fleeting thoughts and mixed emotions,” Lt Cdr Roopa told The Indian Express. “We wouldn’t say there is no fear. We are excited and aware of the challenges that lie ahead. We have been waiting for this moment for three years. The sea is calling.”

Lt Cdr Roopa and Lt Cdr Dilna both come from military families and have accumulated thousands of nautical miles between them under the mentorship of retired Commander Abhilash Tomy, a renowned circumnavigator who finished second in the Golden Globe Race in 2022.

“They will be sailing from Goa, around the world south of the great capes of the southern hemisphere and finishing at Goa,” Cdr Tomy tells The Independent. “There will be four stops,” he says. The stops will be Fremantle in Australia, Lyttleton in New Zealand, Port Stanley in the Falklands and Cape Town in South Africa.

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“This is a route which is rarely sailed,” he explains. “The challenges could come from extremes of weather, battling isolation, gear failure [or] running out of supplies.”

“When we cast off, no ship will be escorting us. We will be on our own. For instance, if we run out of water, there will be no ship, say, at a distance of 10 miles who can come for assistance. On the boat, we are the engineers, electricians, carpenters,” Lt Cdr Dilna told the Express.

“It is a whole set of skills one must learn – from cooking to weather prediction, from navigation to medicine. It takes many years to prepare,” says Cdr Tomy.

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The pair’s preparations have included a journey last year with a six-member crew from Goa to Rio de Janeiro and back, as well as a successful voyage from Goa to Sri Vijaya Puram and another to Mauritius earlier this year.

“But there are no tricks,” warns Cdr Tomy, adding: “It is a real and hard battle to survive the sea in this manner and return to where you started, having gone around the world.”

The reward for this journey “is a kind of freedom that one cannot experience on land”, he says. “The solitude is beautiful and freeing.”

The Indian Navy has been actively revitalising its sailing traditions, showcasing its commitment to maritime heritage and seamanship through initiatives like the training ships INS Tarangini and INS Sudarshini, along with circumnavigation missions on INSVs Mhadei and Tarini.

While India is not aiming for any world record through this journey, Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, the Vice Chief of Naval Staff, described the expedition as a journey of empowerment and a commitment to India’s maritime heritage, saying it will significantly advance India’s ocean sailing enterprise and showcase the growing prominence of gender equality on the high seas.

Speaking about how the two officers came to be selected for the expedition, Lt Cdr Dilna told O Heraldo, a local daily in Goa, that she “always loved adventure since my childhood.

“That’s how I got interested and started sailing. I always wanted to do something different and challenging. So when I got an opportunity, I just grabbed it.”