Ace circumnavigator and the only Indian to complete the Golden Globe Race (GGR), Cdr Abhilash Tomy (Retd), will mentor and coach two volunteer women Naval officers, Lt Cdr Dilna and Lt Cdr Roopa who will be undertaking Sagar Parikrama IV, a circumnavigation sailing expedition on Indian Naval Sailing Vessel Tarini scheduled for next year. He is also currently working with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its manned space mission, Gaganyaan, advising on recovery of astronauts at sea.
Ahead of the formal commencement of preparations for Sagar Parikrama IV, the Navy’s Ocean Sailing Node signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Cdr Tomy. At the signing were Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, Controller of Personnel Services and Vice President, Indian Naval Sailing Association (INSA) and Rear Adm Rajesh Dhankhar, Commandant Naval War College, the Navy said in a statement on Thursday.
Lt Cdr Dilna and Lt Cdr Roopa, will form the team undertaking the circumnavigation sailing expedition on Indian Naval Sailing Vessel Tarini next year. The two officers had earlier participated in the seven-month, 17000nm, trans-ocean inter-continental “Goa to Rio & Back” Tarini Expedition.
“Over the coming months, the two officers will train rigorously for the mission under Cdr Tomy’s tutelage, including undertaking several short and long sailing voyages in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean,” the Navy said. Cdr Tomy would also be mentoring participants of other sailing expeditions and share his experiences at training establishments through motivational talks.
Sagar Parikrama IV will be a crossing “that has never been attempted before” and a significant step in India’s ocean sailing enterprise, the Navy added.
On his association with ISRO, Cdr Tomy told The Hindu that he is working to assist in the recovery of astronauts once the capsule splashes into the sea on return. “When they land, they are landing in the sea. So ISRO wanted help tweaking their procedures for recovery at sea,” he said.
If everything goes well, the spot they will land has been decided and the Navy will go and pick them up. However, if the landing igoes wrong there are a large number of spots which are so spread apart, it can be anywhere in the world. “Navy will take time to reach. It will be a search and rescue procedure,” he said.
While taking part in GGR in 2018, Cdr Tomy suffered a severe back injury and was stranded in the south Indian Ocean, approximately 1900 nautical miles from Perth, Australia and 2700 nm from Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari). He was rescued after a multi-nation search and rescue operation. Early this year, another participant in GGR-2022, Ian Herbert Jones was rescued from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on the third day after he raised a distress signal.
Cdr Tomy stressed how important emergency locators beacons, that had enough endurance to give rescue teams time to reach, were for survival when stranded in remote parts of the ocean
In April, Cdr Tomy created history as the first Indian to finish the prestigious GGR 2022 finishing 2nd after a gruelling 236 days alone at sea in a sail boat, in a race of grit and endurance.
