Vartika Joshi: The Woman Who Skippered India Around the World

In 2017, six Indian Navy officers sailed out of Goa. No man was aboard, and Vartika Joshi was their skipper.

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Vartika Joshi

The naval officer who skippered India’s first all-woman crew around the world.

10 September 2017

INSV Tarini departs Goa

Vartika Joshi skippers a six-member all-woman Navy crew out of Goa, on the Navika Sagar Parikrama expedition.

Oct 2017 – Mar 2018

Rounds the three great capes

Tarini rounds Cape Leeuwin, Cape Horn, and the Cape of Good Hope, with port calls at Fremantle, Lyttelton, Port Stanley, and Cape Town.

8 March 2018

Nari Shakti Puraskar

While still at sea, the crew is conferred the Nari Shakti Puraskar by President Ram Nath Kovind, on International Women’s Day.

21 May 2018

Returns to Goa

After 254 days and about 21,600 nautical miles, Tarini docks back in Goa — India’s first all-woman circumnavigation.

Two different “firsts”: the crew’s trainer, Captain Dilip Donde, was the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe solo, back in 2009-10. Tarini’s crew set a different record — the first all-woman Indian crew to do it, not a solo voyage.

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Must Know

• Lt Cdr Vartika Joshi, a naval officer from Uttarakhand, skippered the Indian Navy’s first all-woman crew to sail around the world.
• The six-member crew also included Lt Cdrs Pratibha Jamwal, P. Swathi, and Aishwarya Boddapati, and Lts Payal Gupta and Shourgrakpam Vijaya Devi.
• They sailed aboard INSV Tarini, an Indian-built sailboat, on an expedition called Navika Sagar Parikrama.
• The crew departed Goa on 10 September 2017.
• Their route rounded three great capes: Cape Leeuwin, Cape Horn, and the Cape of Good Hope.
• They returned to Goa on 21 May 2018, after 254 days at sea, having covered about 21,600 nautical miles.
• This made them the first all-woman Indian crew to circumnavigate the globe.

Good to Know

• The Navy selected the crew in 2014, from around 500 applicants.
• They then trained for nearly three years, combining classroom instruction with hands-on sailing on INSV Mhadei and INSV Tarini.
• Their trainer was Captain Dilip Donde, the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe solo, back in 2009-10.
• Planned port calls included Fremantle in Australia, Lyttelton in New Zealand, Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, and Cape Town in South Africa.
• An unplanned technical halt, for steering gear repairs, added Port Louis in Mauritius to their route.
• On 8 March 2018, International Women’s Day, President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the crew with the Nari Shakti Puraskar, while they were still at sea.
• The crew also received the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for 2017, India’s highest adventure-sports honour.

Test Yourself

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1. What was the name of the 2017-18 expedition in which INSV Tarini’s all-woman crew circumnavigated the globe?

Sagar Parikrama

Nari Sagar Abhiyan

Navika Sagar Parikrama

Tarini Vishwa Yatra

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Great to Know

• Dilip Donde’s own circumnavigation was a different feat from his trainees’ voyage. He sailed alone; Tarini’s crew set the record for an all-woman crew, not a solo sailor.
• In 2024, the Navy launched a follow-up expedition, Navika Sagar Parikrama II, crewed by just two women officers. It is a separate, smaller voyage, distinct from this original six-member crossing.
• The crew’s route was not a straight line home. Rounding all three great capes meant crossing some of the roughest, most remote sailing water on Earth, far from any quick rescue.

Current Affairs

• 30 July 2026: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh felicitated nine women officers of IASV Triveni, in New Delhi, for completing India’s first-ever Tri-Services all-women circumnavigation, Samudra Pradakshina.
  • The expedition covered about 25,500 nautical miles across four oceans, in 314 days, sailing on the Indian Army Sailing Vessel Triveni.
  • It began with a virtual flag-off from the Gateway of India, Mumbai, on 11 September 2025, and met all internationally recognised circumnavigation criteria: crossing every meridian of longitude, crossing the Equator twice, crossing the International Date Line, and rounding the same three great capes as Tarini’s 2017-18 voyage.
  • Singh called it a shining example of Nari Shakti and Tri-Service jointness — a joint Army-Navy-Air Force crew, unlike Tarini’s single-service Navy crew.
  (Source: ANI)