Starting from the Goan capital, Panjim, the team has embarked on a mission named ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’ for a period of 200 plus days at sea. The goal is to cover 21,600+ nautical miles on board the 55 ft indigenous sailboat INSV Tarini.
The participants in this mission are Lt Cdr Pratibha Jamwal, Lt Cdr Swathi P, Lt Aishwarya Boddapati, Lt Sh Vijaya Devi, Lt Payal Gupta, and Lt Cdr Vartika Joshi, as the skipper.
The prime agenda of the crew will be to collect and update Meteorological/ Ocean/Wave data everyday for study to be undertaken by various research and development organsations. Other duties of the crew will be to measure the degree of marine pollution on the high seas, and communicate with people of Indian origin during their pit-stops at different ports.
The women officers are no amateurs; they have a solid background of sailing around 20,000 nautical miles aboard INSV Mhadei and Tarini. They have also made two expeditions to Mauritius – one in 2016, and the other this year. They also made a trip from Goa to Cape Town in December 2016.
