Indian Navy’s first all-women crew crosses Cape Horn, hoists tricolour

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Jan 19, 2018 : A six-member, all-girls team of Indian Navy on Friday rounded the Cape of Horn in South America - the roughest patch of the sea in the world as a part of their voyage to circumnavigate the globe.

 

They crossed the notorious Drake Passage where the sea is extremely rough because of the meeting between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and the nearest land mass is the Antarctica that lies 600 nautical miles south of the passage.

"They rounded the Cape Horn earlier in the day. It’s a huge feat akin to scaling Mt Everest in mountaineering. While crossing the Drake passage, they hoisted the tricolour in the mast of their sail boat INSV Tarini," said a Navy official.

This is the second of the three great Capes that the Indian team has to cross in its voyage to qualify as a circumnavigation. INS Tarini crossed Cape Leeuwin in Australia on November 9, 2017.

Skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, the 56 ft long sailing boat with crew members Lt Cdr Pratibha Jamwal, P Swathi, and Lt S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta was on its way to the third stop in their journey at Port Stanley in the Falklands. They are scheduled to cross the Cape of Good Hope in some times in March.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the team for its achievement. "Wonderful news! Delighted that INSV Tarini has rounded Cape Horn in the last few hours. We are extremely proud of their accomplishments," he tweeted.

The all-girls around-the-high seas trip was flagged off by the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, from Goa on September 10. INSV Tarini will return to Goa in April after nearly 7 months on the high seas with four stopovers at Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), and Cape Town (South Africa).

The team of women officers did a Goa-to-Cape Town trip in December 2016 and another trip to Mauritius in May 2017 as the practice drill for Navika Sagar Parikrama - the third ocean circumnavigation trip from Navy. The previous two trips were undertaken by Comm Dilip Donde and Abilash Tomy.

Tomy was the first Indian and second Asian to complete a solo non-stop unassisted circumnavigation between November 2012 and April 2013.



courtesy:DHNS