Chennai: “If all goes well we will try to circumnavigate the world in 2017,” said Lieutenant Pratibha Jamwal, a naval officer of INS Mhadei who is also an Air Traffic Controller specialist.
The sailboat, which entered Chennai Port Saturday, after participating in the International Fleet Review 2016, traveled a total of 400 nautical miles.
Hailing from Himachal Pradesh, 26-year-old Jamwal is one of the five crew members of the Navy’s sailing vessel, Mhadei, skippered and crewed by an all-women crew of naval officers for the very first time.
Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, a naval architect, was appointed as the first woman skipper of Mhadei. The boat is also crewed by Lieutenants P. Swathi, Vijaya Devi and Sub Lieutenant Payal Gupta (both Education officers).
Gender, which is often made out to be a big issue, never bogged any of them down. “Physically it is challenging but mentally as well. So it doesn’t really matter.
When you are out in the sea, it is sheer will power that drives us, especially in the midst of a challenging situation.” said Swathi, who has been sailing since the age of 12 and whose mother is a sailing instructor herself.
Recalling one such incident, Swathi says “When we were sailing from Cape Town, we went into a storm for seven days with a wind speed of 60 knots and had to come up against sea waves up to eight metres. It required a lot of mental and physical strength to get through the period and we did it.” Both Swathi and Pratibha were shore-based air traffic controllers (AT C) with the navy’s aviation arm. They all had one common goal of sailing the seas.
Sub Lt Payal Gupta from Dehradun, the youngest of the lot, recalled her experience while heading into Vizag for the Indian Fleet Review (IFR) where the all women crew had to encounter heavy winds from 30 to 35 knots. “But we are now up for the tasks as we are well on our way for our goal of 2017”.
Admitting that induction of women for such a venture did take its time, Prathibha added, “Everything good does take time but we can’t be stagnant. Steps are now being in the right direction”
Crediting their success to their parents’ motivation and mentor Commander Dilip Donde, the first Indian to do solo circumnavigation, Prathiba believes that time has come to prove to themselves and attempt to circumnavigate the world.
“Now since we are on way towards our goal there is no looking back and the road ahead is now set for the seas,” said Jamwal. The sixth member of the crew, Lieutenant B. Aishwarya is an engineer and is expected to join the boat next month.
