All-women Indian Navy crew to reach Goa on Monday after historic sailing around world

The all-women crew of the Indian Navy on board the naval vessel INSV Tarini will return to Goa on Monday after sailing around the globe in over eight months.

In a first, the all-women naval crew had set sail on around the globe expedition - Navika Sagar Parikrama – on September 10, 2017, from near Panaji.

Now, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to welcome the all-women crew when it arrives near Panaji, from where they had embarked on their historic journey.

"The Defence Minister and Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba will be present for the flag-in ceremony of the ship near Panaji on Monday," a Navy spokesperson said.

Led by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, the all-women crew also included Lt-Commanders Pratibha Jamwal and Swati P, and Lieutenants Aishwarya Boddapati, S Vijaya Devi and Payal Gupta.

The six women officers were trained under Captain Dilip Donde, the first Indian to solo-circumnavigate the globe in 2009-2010, the Navy official said.

The expedition was sailed in six legs, with stopovers at the Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falkland Islands), Cape Town (South Africa) and Mauritius.

"It covered 21,600 nautical miles in the Indian-built sailing vessel INSV Tarini that visited five countries and crossed the Equator twice, sailed across four continents and three oceans, and passed south of the three Great Capes - Leeuwin, Horn and Good Hope," the spokerperson added.