Joy of 10: The tale of two women naval officers and their journey around the world
The vessel was none other than the much-awaited INSV Tarini, a 55-foot indigenously built cruising sloop inducted into naval service in 2017. Having already participated in several iconic expeditions, Tarini was now returning from a 188-day-long transoceanic and intercontinental voyage — from Goa to Cape Town in South Africa, on to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and back.
At the Rio checkpoint, four of Tarini's six-member crew were rotated out. The two who remained through the entirety of the 17,000-nautical-mile journey were Lieutenant Commanders Dilna K, from Kozhikode in Kerala, and Roopa Alagirisamy from Puducherry.
Their continued presence on board made perfect sense when, during the flag-in ceremony — presided over by Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani and Goa Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant — it was announced that these two officers, the only women on the crew, were the Navy's probable picks for its most ambitious sailing mission yet: a solo circumnavigation of the globe.
A Navy officer later confirmed the voyage was a preparatory run for that mission. "Interestingly, the distance from Goa to Cape Town is twice that of the race itself. So both the women officers had ample time at sea to get used to the conditions," he said.
Indeed, the voyage proved transformative. "The Dilna who came on the yacht today is not the same who left nearly seven months ago," Lt Cdr Dilna told The New Indian Express. "Now I'm more confident on the boat. What made it possible was the support I got from everyone, especially the crew."
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What does that entail? I laid down three simple rules – no collision (do not hit anything), no grounding (do not put your boat on a rock) and no man overboard (no crew falling into the water). If you do the basics right, these three things will not happen. For instance, if you do navigation correctly, you will not have grounding and if your watchkeeping is correct, you will not have a collision. Another objective was that it should not take too long to finish the circumnavigation. We wanted to be conservative, yet fast in approach, so that we are able to arrive at each port with minimal damage to the boat. In sailing, it is said that heroics are not rewarded, but mistakes are punished. This was a circumnavigation where there were no heroics and no mistakes. The officers took care of the boat really well. The result is that the boat has returned in pristine shape. So, it was a 'textbook' circumnavigation. What went into training the INSV Tarini crew? Both officers had done about 20,000 nautical miles as part of the six-member crew during the trans-oceanic expedition from Goa to Rio de Janeiro via Cape Town. When you have six people, you can hide inside the boat. But in a circumnavigation of this sort, one has to know everything. So, I structured my approach by first having classroom sessions, where I explained the nitty-gritty of all the components – the shape of the hull, what performance to expect from a [sloop] rig, how to start the engine, what weather to expect. I also conducted some practical drills, where I taught them how to cast off, how to put the boat alongside [parking], and how to leave the jetty. As most scratches to the hull usually happen while parking, I took them to sail just outside the harbour and explained the shallow patches, what is the point of no return and how to deploy the anchor. I let them sail out solo after a couple of sea sorties with me onboard. We did a sortie to Karwar port where I joined them on the way out and they returned on their own. Then, we sent the boat to Port Blair and back with several stops. And finally, a training sortie from Goa to Mauritius and back on their own. What did you say to the officers before they cast off for the circumnavigation? I gave them a pep talk. I said 'do not tell yourself we are doing a circumnavigation'. I told them you have already sailed to Mauritius, just sail a bit further and you will get to Perth. Perth to Christchurch is a short hop – over 2000 miles. From New Zealand to the Falkland Islands is a tough leg. In the Pacific, I told them I will hand-hold and constantly monitor and guide them. I gave a basic template to follow – catch on to a particular latitude, reach up to a particular longitude and from that point till 'Cape Horn', make a mad rush when there is a weather window. En-route, they faced cyclones and we routed around them. 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During a navigation panel blackout, the electronic chart goes off and one cannot see any wind instruments. The crew had hand-held GPS, so in such a situation, they can plot their location on the chart. Another alternative is that the electronic charts were duplicated in their phones, so the crew could use their phones for navigation. Why is rounding 'Cape Horn' considered a major milestone for seafarers? Rounding 'Cape Horn' is the Holy Grail of sailing. Cape Horn is located near the southernmost tip of South America and just over 800 kms from Antarctica. One has to go through difficult and unpredictable weather conditions – storms, extreme winds and towering waves – to cross the Cape, and it is a leg which has no diversionary ports. So, if anything happens, you are on your own out there. People think that rounding Cape Horn is tough. It is not the rounding that is difficult. What is difficult is to reach there.
