Aishwarya Boddapati was one of the six all-women crew of the Indian Navy that successfully circumnavigated the globe. The team, which set sail in the Indian Naval Sailing Vessel Tarini (INSV Tarini), completed the arduous adventure in 254 days and returned to Goa on May 21.

“We were confronted with 20 hours of virulent storm and waves and had to brave testing times in the South Pacific Ocean at one point,” recalled Aishwarya. “I suffered severe frostbites in my fingers even after wearing 8 layers of winter protection. But in the end, we endured it together as a team and came out successful.”

The other members of the Sagar Parikrama team were Pratibha Jamwal, Swati P, S Vijaya Devi, Payal Gupta and Vartika Joshi.

“We covered a total of 21,600 nautical miles, enduring bitterly hostile conditions along the way,” Aishwarya told a media conference here today. The achievement is not just a credit to the capabilities of the team members but reinforces the belief that gender is not a barrier to achieve one’s dream, she said.

Aishwarya, who grew up in Hyderabad, said 30 women officers had volunteered for the mission.

The selected team was extensively mentored and trained by Dilip Donde, the first Indian to circumnavigate the globe from the Navy in the project ‘Sagar Parikrama’.

Next, an order was placed to procure a sailing boat of the same class that Dilip used for his trip. The INSV Tarini was inducted into the Navy on February 18, 2017. As part of the preparations, the crew spent almost two-and-a-half years sailing, once to Mauritius and twice to Cape Town, which proved to be of great help.

They finally set sail on September 10. As Aishwarya puts it, the mission was a “test of sheer endurance.”

On their their return to Goa on May 21, they were welcomed by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.

(Ajay Raghavan is interning with BL in Hyderabad)

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