An all-woman crew has started training to circumnavigate the world next year in the Navy’s famous sailing vessel Mhadei after taking part in the prestigious International Fleet Review off Visakhapatnam last week. The sail boat with the crew led by lt Commander Vartika Joshi entered Chennai Port on Saturday and will set sail for Kochi before reaching home base at Goa.
Giving details about the first ever women crew, officials said here besides Joshi, who is a Naval architect, the other members of the team training for dangerous and arduous journey of more than 20,000 nautical miles through some of the toughest oceans are lieutenants P Swathi, Pratibha Jamwal (Air Traffic Control specialists), Vijaya Devi and Sub lieutenant Payal Gupta (both Education officers). The sixth member of the crew, lieutenant B Aishwarya is an Engineer and is expected to join the boat next month.
Mhadei will remain at the Ports of Chennai (13-16 Feb) and Kochi (23-26 Feb) on her return journey. She will eventually return to Goa on March two. This is the first all-women crew to handle any ocean-going sailing boat of the Navy. All the crew members are volunteers and are driven by their passion for adventure and a love for sailing and the seas, they said.