Indian Navy's Tryst With Ocean Sailing
Last week the news channels were flush with Cdr Abhilash Tomy, an Indian Naval officer participating in the Golden Globe Race (GGR), who was injured after his boat, the 'Thuriya' was dismasted in treacherous sea and wind conditions, south west of Australia in the Indian Ocean and his subsequent rescue which was coordinated by the Australian rescue agency as the area was within their Search and Rescue Region (SRR). They used their P8 aircraft and sailed one of their warships. However, it was the Indian Navy P8I reconnaissance aircraft, which was able to locate the boat and directed the French fishing vessel 'Osiris' to the location, which thereafter undertook the actual rescue operation by sending a gemini boat, with a stretcher and a small medical team. The Indian Navy also diverted INS Satpura deployed in the Indian Ocean to assist in the rescue effort.
Cdr Abhilash Tomy was participating in the GGR, which started from France on 1st of July 2018. It is considered one of the toughest ocean sailing races in the world. Whilst all ocean sailings have the inherent element of risk, this one is considered particularly difficult since the participants are not permitted to use the modern navigation and communication gadgets, like satellite communication etc and have to rely on basic gadgets of yore, for navigation and communication as also elements of nature. Abhilash Tomy has been a keen ocean sailing enthusiast and had earlier undertaken a solo non stop unassisted circumnavigation of the globe from 1st Nov 2012 to 31 Mar 2013, on the Indian Navy Sailing Vessel (INSV) Mhadei, becoming the first Indian to undertake this arduous task.
Another important media event, which has caught the attention of the nation is the participation by the six women officers, who circumnavigated the globe earlier this year, on Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) Karamveer, which was telecast on Sony Entertainment Channel on 28th Sep 18. The common theme between the two media events is the fact that both are part of the Indian Navy's Ocean Sailing fraternity with Admiral MP Awati (Retd) as their mentor and both had sailed on boats that were indigenously built by a small shipyard in Goa, then called Aquarius Fibreglass Pvt Ltd, which has since been named as Aquarius Shipyard Pvt Ltd.
Ocean sailing in the Indian Navy has been the brainchild of Vice Admiral MP Awati, PVSM, VrC (Retd), a 91 year old veteran and a maritime historian, who always felt that Indian Navy as the premier maritime service should be able to circumnavigate the globe on boats much like some western nations do. Adm Awati had retired from the Indian Navy in Mar 1983, as the Flag Officer Commanding in Chief of the Western Naval Command, based at Mumbai. He was fond of sailing during his naval career. A few years after his retirement, sometime in the late 80s, he conceptualized the idea of ocean sailing in the Indian Navy and took up the matter with successive Naval Chiefs. The idea however didn't cut ice with them since they felt it was not worth the risks involved. It was only later with Adm Arun Prakash as the Chief, sometime in 2005-6, that his plea was not only given a patient hearing but also acted upon. Thus started the saga of ocean sailing in the Navy and the project was named 'Sagar Parikrama'.
The task ahead was enormous. The first challenge was to find volunteers for, a never heard of venture like this, since no one had the faintest idea of what the project involved. The choice of station for the preparations etc had to be Mumbai, since that was the hub of sailing activity in the Navy. After a lot of searching around, an officer by the name Capt Dilip Donde, now retired, volunteered, who also at that time, didn't have any inclination of the enormity of the task. All he knew was that he loved sailing and that the project sounded like a good idea. He had earlier been on INS Tarangini, the Indian Navy's Sail Training Ship but this was a totally different ball game, fundamentally because Tarangini was a ship with an entire crew and this was just a boat and he was to be the only crew. Dilip Donde is a clearance diver by vocation and that time posted in the A&N Islands but was in Mumbai on a sailing assignment, when he volunteered for the project. It is only then that, the magnitude of the task ahead dawned on him..
The task broadly involved identifying a suitable boat which could be used for the expedition, co-ordinate various activities for its construction including running around at Delhi, training and conditioning the mind and body for such a long voyage and finally undertaking the voyage itself. For selection of the boat, the pre requisite was that it had to be one built in India. Admiral Awati meanwhile persuaded the Navy to get the requisite funding support from MOD for construction of the boat. Naval Headquarters were able to get the requisite funds sanctioned for the project. The boat was based on the Dutch 'Van de Stadt', design and built by Mr Ratnakar Dandekar at Aquarius Fibreglass Pvt Ltd at Goa. The boat was named Mhadei after the Mandovi River, on which the boatyard is located. The construction started on Christmas Day, i.e. 25 Dec 2007 and was handed over to the Indian Navy on 12 February 2009. It is 17 meters long and has a displacement of 23 tons.
Circumnavigation of the globe through the ocean route is based on certain rules, which have to be followed stringently. The circumnavigator or the team must not only cross all meridians and return to the spot they started from but also must avoid straits and canals. They must cross the equator twice and the international dateline once, round the three great capes, i.e. Cape Leeuwin in Australia, Cape Horn in South America and Cape of Good Hope in Africa and must travel more than 21,600 nautical miles, which is the circumference of the earth.
Dilip Donde then spent some time with Adm Awati, gauging the depth of the mission. He also went to the UK to work with Sir Robin Knox Johnston, the first person to do a solo non -stop circumnavigation in 1968. As a matter of fact, the GGR, in which Abhilash Tomy was participating, is based on the equipment, navigation aids like charts, sextants etc as used by Sir Robin in his circumnavigation in 1968. Dilip Donde worked with Sir Robin for about six weeks. He also fully involved himself in the boat construction at Goa, since boat building of this kind was an entirely new territory for Ratnakar Dandekar. Once the INSV Mhadei was floated in Goa, Sir Robin Knox Johnston joined the crew in an initial trial run. After a trip to Colombo, the Navy team sailed her short-handed to Mauritius, the first trip of its kind. Then Dilip Donde sailed her back to India, alone — his first solo voyage and a first for the country. During this time Abhilash Tomy was Dilip Donde's crew.
Captain Dilip Donde went on to become the first Indian to achieve such a huge feat, thereby joining an elite club of only around 170 people, compared to over 5000 Everest climbers and over 600 people who had been to outer space. He had started from Mumbai on 19 August 2009 and returned to Mumbai on 19 May 2010. During his circumnavigation, he had four stop overs at Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falkland Islands) and Cape Town (South Africa). He passed through all major oceans, i.e. the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, the Southern Ocean and the Atlantic. The passage also took him around the three Capes, i.e. Cape Leeuwin, south of Australia, Cape Horn, south of South America and Cape of Good Hope, south of South Africa. During his voyage he faced a no of challenges like monstrous winds, high waves, extreme temperatures and to add to the misery two major breakdowns, that of the autopilot and the steering gear. He had a no of near misses during the voyage but it was his strong determination and physical and mental robustness that he endured all adversities with grace.
All through his voyage, his shore assistance team comprised of then Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy and Mr Ratnakar Dandekar, the boat builder, apart from the Navy monitoring his circumnavigation 24x7. It was indeed a saga of grit, determination, courage and team work. In recognition of his singular achievement, then Cdr Dilip Donde was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for exceptional courage and bravery, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, the MacGregor Medal and the National Maritime Achievement Award. Dilip Donde is a living legend and has penned his experiences in his book 'The first Indian'.
Mhadei proved its mettle and the innocuous looking boatyard got a name for itself. Admiral Awati, the mentor for the project was not one to rest on his laurels and his next goal was to have a solo nonstop unassisted circumnavigation and the obvious choice was then Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy, who was working with Dilip Donde and being his shore support team, was generally aware of what the new venture entailed.
In order to prepare himself for the solo nonstop circumnavigation, Abhilash Tomy shifted from the Naval Mess in Mumbai to the boat, about 9 months before his circumnavigation. The aim was to condition himself for the onerous task that he had on hand, as also to develop a proper chemistry between him and the boat and acclimatize himself for the solo nonstop circumnavigation.
Tomy began his journey from Mumbai, at the Gateway of India, on 1st November 2012. He sailed from West to East and crossed the Indian, Pacific, Southern and Atlantic Oceans, covering a distance of 23,100 nms, without touching land anywhere. The voyage took 151 days and was completed on 31 March 2013. On 6 April 2013, a ceremony was held in his honour, where he was officially received by then President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee. Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy became the first Indian and second Asian after Minoru Saito of Japan, to complete such a journey.
During the solo nonstop circumnavigation, Tomy faced many challenges, like extreme weather, which included winds averaging 40 knots, waves averaging 8-9 meter high, and in one instance at the Cape of Good Hope, with wind speeds of 70 knots and more than 10 meter high waves. One of his videos shows him swinging like at a pendulum on the mast to correct a sail, which was torn due to strong winds. He also suffered a shortage of drinking water because of the failure of on board Reverse Osmosis plant, about a third of the way into the voyage and a diesel leak which contaminated his stored water and sealed bottles. He was left with approximately 15 litres of fresh water, which is only one bucket of water, to last him for the remaining 15 days of the journey and therefore had to resort to rain water harvesting and conservation of water for the rest of the voyage. He only had the company of the roaring forties and the furious fifties and the farthest distance from land was about 2500 nautical miles at one instance. The solitude and loneliness of this voyage was such that he didn't speak with any human for 87 days at a stretch and had not sighted any human beings for a period of 130 days, his last sighting being a group of Sri Lankan fishermen.
While at sea, Tomy's activities included boat-related work, cooking, reading books, and communicating through e-mails with friends and colleagues. Tomy had an anecdote at the immigration office, after arrival in Mumbai post the circumnavigation, when the immigration officers who stamped his passport were confused when they noticed that his passport contained no immigration stamps of any other country, despite him having gone around the world.
Abhilash Tomy became the only Indian to have circumnavigated the globe nonstop and solo and the 79th person in the world to have achieved this feat. For an extreme achievement of this nature he was awarded the Kirti Chakra, the second highest peace time gallantry award (after Ashok Chakra), the Tenzing Norgay Award, the National Adventure Award and the McGregor Award.
Admiral Awati's next venture was to send a group of young women Naval officers for circumnavigation, and the project was named 'Navika Sagar Parikrama'. The boat used for this was the sister vessel of 'Mhadei' called INSV 'Tarini', which was manned by an all Women Naval Officers crew. All these six women officers were complete rookies and had never been to sea, let alone handle a small boat on their own. However, they volunteered and despite all odds, completed the circumnavigation under the tutelage of Capt Dilip Donde.
Prior to the circumnavigation, the crew comprising Lt Cdr Vartika Joshi (the skipper), Lt Cdr Pratibha Jamwal, Lt Cdr P Swathi, Lt Payal Gupta, Lt Aishwarya Boddapati, and Lt Shourgrakpam Vijaya Devi trained for three years at various training schools of the Navy in Kochi, primarily on subjects like seamanship, navigation, communication, meteorology etc and also at sea. The training was required since unlike male officers, women officers in the Navy don't go to sea and therefore the need for this exposure. This was followed by hands on training on INSV Mhadei and INSV Tarini. The crew thereafter got further trained under Capt Dilip Donde. The team undertook various sailings for familiarization cum training to ports in India like Karwar, Kochi, Chennai, Vishakhapatnam and thereafter Mauritius in 2016 and 2017. This was followed by a voyage from Goa to Cape Town in 2016. Two of the Navika Sagar Parikrama team members also participated in the Cape to Rio Race 2017 onboard INSV Mhadei, skippered by one Capt Atool Sinha,(an Asian Games silver medalist in sailing), from Cape Town, who led a mixed crew of men and women into the race.
The six-member all-woman team circumnavigated and managed the whole operation in their first ever global journey. The voyage started from Goa on 10 Sep 2017 and was completed on 21 May 2018, when the crew returned to Goa, with only 4 port calls in Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falkland Islands) and Cape Town (South Africa). During their voyage, they were hit by a strong cyclone with wind speeds of 140 kmph and waves of more than 9 meters for almost 20 hrs, whilst they were in the Pacific Ocean. During the cyclone, they also had a steering gear breakdown. On the last leg of the voyage from Cape Town to Goa, the boat developed a machinery defect, for which they had a forced technical halt at Port Louis, Mauritius. However, as they say all is well that ends well and they completed the voyage successfully. It was a defining moment for these ladies as they brought the 'Tarini' into Goa harbour on 21 May 18, having created history by sailing across the roughest seas in the world, with wave heights of more than 9 meters and braving winds of upto 130 kms an hour. They had by then clocked more than 22,000 nautical miles to a rousing applause from the whole nation. For their indomitable spirit and exceptional courage all these girls were awarded the Nausena Medal (Gallantry).
Ocean sailing in the Indian Navy has come a long way since it was first conceptualized by Admiral Awati. It is also pertinent to mention that Indian Navy today, is one of the few Navies in the world, which has carved a niche for itself in undertaking Ocean sailings in small boats on a regular basis. Ocean sailings, are the ultimate test of human endurance, perseverance and determination, wherein a circumnavigator faces the wrath and fury of nature at its worst. However, it is also the closest that a person can be to elements of nature in this day and age of pollution all around.
Cdr Abhilash Tomy's participation in the GGR is a matter of pride for the Navy and the nation. This race is being conducted to commemorate 50 years of Sir Robin Knox Johnston's maiden circumnavigation around the globe, which he undertook in 1968. That is the reason why participants are only permitted to use the gadgets, for navigation and communication, which were in vogue during that period. On a similar note, the six women officers, who circumnavigated the globe on board INSV Tarini, in May this year, have brought laurels to the Navy and the nation and truly epitomize the vision of women's empowerment. We hope that Cdr Abhilash Tomy, who was progressing the GGR at the third position out of a total of 17 participants, when the unfortunate incident happened, is back on his feet again to start his next venture.
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