Lt. Commander Abhilash Tomy of the Indian Navy has embarked on a historic voyage that will see him perform a circumnavigation of the Earth, non-stop.
The journey, that was flagged off from the Gateway Of India in Mumbai on the 1st of November 2012, is expected to last for a duration of around 180 days. If all goes well, which I earnestly hope it does, during the course of his 6-months voyage, he shall have absolutely no physical contact, either with landmass or a fellow mammal. One, however, can keep track of his boat, the Mhadei, through a website that has been especially created for this purpose. The Google Maps engine powers the website, over which he has been marking his daily position, as he progresses. Also informing you is the weather condition prevailing over the waters he is sailing.
Click on the image to visit his website.
Along with it, every couple of days, he has also been making entries in his blog. Makes for very interesting reading. Upon successful completion of this feat, he shall be the first Indian to have done so, and only the second in Asia.
Lt. Commander Tomy's mission had been preceded by the successful completion of a similar recent attempt made by yet another Indian Naval Officer, Commander Dilip Donde. A major difference between his & the one currently underway was that Commander Donde made port calls to different countries enroute, during which he was also felicitated at the host nation. I had the honour of exchanging some e-mails with him after he had set sail. In one of these, I suggested that he also upload videos of his sojourn at regular intervals, so that one may be able to partake in the view that he is viewing. Perhaps, because he hadn't factored it into his plans earlier, or due to the modest Internet connectivity [VSAT terminal, with speed measured in Kbps], it did not materialise. He did make it a point to update his blog, every now and then. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this time around a YouTube Channel has setup for exactly this purpose. Lt. Commander Tomy has already posted 3 videos since he began, and some from prior to that.
Wishing him a safe and successful completion of the task he has set out to accomplish. A pioneer.
Godspeed
Related: Indian Navy's Kora-class Corvette INS Kulish [P63] [Wallpaper material]