It is four in the evening and Major Mukta S. Gautam is checking the 19-metre high mast of SV Frama — a Bavaria-class sailing vessel anchored in Chennai port.
And though it is the end of a hard day’s work, she is more than happy as her team, which is gearing up for the Army sailing expedition — Sailing around the Indian Peninsula — is winding up training in Chennai.
The team, under its skipper Major Alok Yadav, has spent a week in Chennai as part of its training for the expedition, which starts from from Haldia in West Bengal and ends in Porbandar in Gujarat.
Spanning 3,500 nautical miles, the expedition is said to be the first such exercise covering the Eastern and Western coasts.
Around 50 personnel, including 25 officers and five women officers from different wings of the Army, are participating in the expedition. “We are planning to enter the Limca Book of Records for sailing around the Indian peninsula,” says Major Yadav.
Platinum jubilee
Under the aegis of the Army Adventure Wing and facilitated by the EME Sailing Association, the expedition on the 44-feet-long boat has been organised to commemorate the platinum jubilee of the Corps of the Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) and is set to commence from Haldia on October 18, says Major Yadav, who had participated in four sailing expeditions on the Western seaboard so far.
As per the sailing plan, the team on board Frama — the 15-year-old chartered boat from a Chennai-based vendor — would make port calls in eight cities and towns on the Eastern and Western seaboards: Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Karaikal, Vizhinjam, Kochi, Mangaluru, Goa and Mumbai.
A team of about eight to 10 sailors would take turns to sail from every port of call. “At any given point of time, about 10 sailors would be on board,” says Major Yadav. And naturally, the team is thrilled at the prospects. “We have trained so hard and we are looking forward for the expedition,” says Ms. Gautam.
Twenty-four-year-old Lieutenant Sonal Goel from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, the youngest in the team, is more than excited about her first expedition.
“The Army provides for and encourages adventure, and I wanted to make the most of it,” she said. Frama is set to leave for Haldia from Chennai on Friday morning.
