Indian Navy's all-women crew to circumnavigate globe from September 10: All you need to know

An all-women crew of the Indian Navy will set sail from Goa on September 10 on a mission to circumnavigate the globe covering over 21,600 nautical miles over a period of eight months on sailing vessel INSV Tarini. The crew, comprising six women, will return in March 2018.

This is the first-ever circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew of the Indian Navy. The expedition, which has been titled Navika Sagar Parikrama, aims to showcase naari shakti (woman power) on the global platform.

The vessel will be skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi. Other crew members include Lieutenant Commanders Pratibha Jamwal and Patarapalli Swathi and Lieutenants Aishwarya Boddapati, S Vijaya Devi and Payal Gupta.

The crew met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August this year and explained to him the details of their upcoming voyage. PM Modi "wished the women crew well, and said he would keep track of their progress around the world. He exhorted them to project India's capabilities and strengths across the world. He also encouraged them to write and share their experiences, after the successful completion of the voyage," a press release stated.

All you need to know about the mission:

The Indian Navy Sailing Vessel (INSV) Tarini, which was built at the Aquarius Shipyard in Goa, is 55-foot long, five metres wide and has a displacement of 23 tonnes. It consists of a small engine to power the vessel in and out of ports. INSV Tarini was built indigenously and inducted into the Indian Navy in February 2017.

The journey will be completed in five legs with four stopovers — Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), and Cape Town (South Africa). The vessel's longest journey will be of 45 days when it travels from New Zealand to Falklands, Hindustan Times reported.

In a first, an all-women military team will attempt the circumnavigation. It is also the first Asian women's team to do so. A voyage qualifies as circumnavigation if it begins and ends at the same port and covers over 21,600 nautical miles. The voyage should not involve crossing a strait or a canal. All meridians should be crossed at least once.

A total of 20 women had volunteered for the circumnavigation, out of which six — two naval architects, two air traffic control officers and two women from the education branch of the Indian Navy — got selected.

Captain (Retd) Dilip Donde and Commander Abhilash Tomy, who completed the circumnavigation in 2009-10 and 2012-13 respectively, have mentored the women. The all-women crew has been a part of the Indian Navy for five to seven years now.

The women have been trained to deal with everything from breakdown of equipment and extreme temperatures to emergencies like a crew member falling overboard. Captain Joshi, who will lead the mission, had said in August that crew would be carrying laptops, DVDs and books to keep themselves occupied.

The crew will survive on dry ration for most of the voyage as there is not provision for refrigeration. The crew will begin the journey with 600 litres of water. An RO plant onboard the vessel can give an output of 30 litres per hour.

The women undertook several missions as part of their training programme to prepare them for the circumnavigation. They sailed around 20,000 nautical miles onboard INSV Mhadei and Tarini to Mauritius in 2016-17 and from Goa to Cape Town in December 2016 as part of their training.

The Navy will keep a track on the voyage to make sure the crew is safe. "Once in a while, we will send an aircraft to swing by and say hi to the crew. It will make them feel nice too," Vice Admiral Anil Chawla, the Navy's chief of personnel, was quoted by HT as saying.

He added that search and assistance regions manned by different countries have also been informed about the mission and its itinerary. The crew will not enter piracy-infested areas.