The team of six Indian Navy women officers onboard Indian Naval Ship (INS) Tarini departed from Port louis, Mauritius on Thursday for the final leg of their maiden voyage to circumnavigate the globe. The vessel is expected to arrive at Goa in mid May 2018.
Incidentally, the vessel had entered Port louis on April 18 for emergency repairs to the steering gear.
According to Indian Navy official, “The High Commission of India, Mauritius in coordination with National Coast Guard, Mauritius provided complete assistance towards speedy defect rectification, which included diving repair work, provisioning of requisite spares and technical support.”
“The steering system was rectified and Tarini undertook a trial sortie off Port louis to ascertain operational availability of steering gear at sea,” the Navy official said.
Updating the status about Tarini, Indian Navy Official tweeted: INSV Tarini departs Port louis, Mauritius after speedy repairs of its steering system.
Tarini entered Cape Town (South Africa) on March 2, 2018. The vessel is skippered by lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi and the crew comprises lieutenant Commanders Pratibha Jamwal, P Swathi, and lieutenants S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta. The vessel covered 17,500 nautical miles from Goa, and crossed the equator on 25 September 17 (total distance is 21,600 nautical miles).
The crew and the vessel have encountered rough seas and extremely cold temperature coupled with stormy weather conditions, making the task of circumnavigation highly daunting and challenging.
The vessel's passage through the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans thus far, has witnessed winds in excess of 60 knots and waves up to 7 metre high.
The first ever expedition is titled as “Navika Sagar Paikrama”, aims to showcase 'Nari Shakti' on the world platform and help in transforming societal attitudes and mindset towards women in India by raising visibility of their participation in challenging environs. Nirmala Sitharaman, Raksha Mantri had flagged-off INSV Tarini from Goa on September 10, 2017.
Earlier, it was expected that the vessel would return to Goa in April on completion of the voyage.
The expedition is being covered in five legs, with stopovers at Fremantle (Australia), lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), and Cape Town (South Africa). Presently, the vessel has covered four of the five legs of the voyage and has entered the last port at Cape Town, South Africa.