Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV) Mhadei set sail from Goa on Tuesday with an all-woman crew for a voyage to Port Louis in Mauritius skippered by Lt. Cdr. Vartika Joshi, a Naval Constructor. The ship was flagged-off by R.Adm K.K. Pandey from INS Mandovi at Verem in north Goa at a ceremony on Tuesday.
“This would be the first open-ocean voyage of the Navy’s all-woman crew of the Mhadei . It is a training voyage to expose the young crew to the weather that they will confront during the circumnavigation of the globe scheduled for 2017,” a senior officer said.
The crew comprising of Lieutenant (Lt.) P. Swathi, Lt. B. Aishwarya, Lt. Pratibha Jamwal, Lt. Vijaya and Lt Payal Gupta will undertake the voyage through heavy weather, expected during the monsoons in the Arabian Sea, the Navy said in a statement. The Skipper, Lt. Cdr Vartika Joshi and Lt. Swathi have been part of the Mhadei ’screw on earlier voyages.
