In 2017, six Indian Navy officers sailed out of Goa. No man was aboard, and Vartika Joshi was their skipper.
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2. Selection, Training, and Honours at Sea
- Crew Selection 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.
- Trainer Their trainer was Captain Dilip Donde, the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe solo, back in 2009-10.
- Port Calls 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.
- Nari Shakti Puraskar 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.
- Adventure Award The crew also received the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for 2017, India’s highest adventure-sports honour.
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3. Solo vs. Crew Records, and the 2024 Follow-Up
- Instead 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.
- Follow-up Expedition 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.
- Why 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.
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