VEREM: Eight months after they set sail from Goa, the all-women crew of the Indian Navy on board the naval vessel INSV Tarini, returned home on Monday after the historic circumnavigation of the globe.
The expedition, ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’, had been flagged off from INS Mandovi on September 10 last year and was led by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi. The crew consisted of Lt Commanders Pratibha Jamwal and Swati P, and Lieutenants Aishwarya Boddapati, S Vijaya Devi and Payal Gupta.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday afternoon welcomed the INS Tarini team on their arrival. She was joined and Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.
“The six women officers were trained under Captain Dilip Donde, the first Indian to solo-circumnavigate the globe in 2009-2010. They covered 21,600 nautical miles in the visited five countries, crossed the equator twice, sailed across four continents and three oceans, and passed south of the three Great Capes – Leeuwin, Horn and Good Hope,” a Navy official said.
