Brave Heroic Tarinis back to their homeland
This was the first-ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. They had begun their voyage in September last year from Goa, in which Goa CM Manohar Parrikar and Minister N Sitharaman had come to wish them for their journey.
The expedition has been titled Navika Sagar Parikrama. The Parikrama was covered in five legs, with stop-overs at 4 ports: Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), and Cape Town (South Africa).
The all-women crew who started their journey of Navika Sagar Parikrama on a 55-foot yacht consisted by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, Lt Commander Pratibha Jamwal, Lt Commander P Swati, Lt Vijaya Devi, Lt B Aishwarya and Lt Payal Gupta.
INVS Tarini was one of the operating four sailing vessels capable of open ocean deployments. Indian Navy is attempting to revitalize open ocean sailing. INSV Tarini is 55 feet in length and built in India in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Indian Navy, fructified by Aquarius Shipyard, Goa.
INSV Tarini attempting to circumnavigate the globe entered the port of Fremantle in Western Australia on Oct 23, 2017, on completion of the first leg of their journey.
On 29 November 2017, it entered the Lyttelton port in New Zealand on its second leg of the maiden voyage to circumnavigate the globe. The vessel had covered over 7800 nautical miles from its starting point in Goa, crossing the Equator on September 17, 2017, and Cape Leeuwin on November 9 to reach there.
On 21 January this year entered the Port Stanley in Falkland Island on its third leg of the maiden voyage. The crew had a testing time while crossing the Pacific Ocean as it experienced rough weather and stormy winds that spanned 41 days. Add to it the extremely cold climate condition they had to overcome. The crew reportedly endured sea wind in excess of 60 knots and ocean waves of up to 7 meters on this leg of the passage.
On its last leg before home stretch to Goa, INSV Tarini reached the 4th stop of Cape Town on March 2. The crew was received in Cape Town by Mayor Helen Zille, Ruchira Kamboj, and High Commissioner of India to South Africa, Indian Consul General of Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as chairperson of Western Cape and other South African Sailing Associations as well as members of Indian diaspora with bouquets, dhol beats and Holi colour.
And finally, they headed towards Goa and touched the land today creating history.
