All-women naval crew to embark on around the globe voyage

New Delhi, August 17  

A six-member all-women crew of the Indian Navy is set to embark on an eight-month voyage in September to circumnavigate the world, the first such feat to be attempted from Asia.

The naval officers led by Lt. Commander Vartika Joshi will set sail in the naval auxiliary vessel INSV Tarini from Goa, and they are expected to depart early September.

“We will be passing through some of the roughest patches of sea during the voyage,” Joshi told reporters today.

“This all-women circumnavigation attempt would be the first of its kind, not only from India but also Asia. They are well-trained and with their maritime odyssey, they will also set sail into the record books,” Naval Chief of Personnel Vice Admiral AK Chawla said.

“They are going to set benchmarks not just for India but the entire world,” he said.

Fellow crew member Pratibha Jamwal, who had joined the Naval Academy in 2011, said, the voyage is daunting but they are all trained and set for it.

The expedition will be covered in five legs, with stopovers at 4 ports—Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), and Cape Town (South Africa), it said.

INSV Tarini is a 55-foot sailing vessel, which has been built indigenously, and inducted in the Indian Navy earlier this year.

The crew had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday. — PTI