Indian Navy officer to take part in around-the-world sailing

Nearly fifty years ago, an epic race, where its nine participants were supposed to sail solo around the world in non-mechanised yachts, ended with only one of them finishing it.

Others met varied fates: one of them committed suicide during the race, while another quit halfway through, deciding to settle down on the isles of Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean.

The Golden Globe Race (GGR) which had started off from Plymouth in Britain was never held again until now.

To mark its golden jubilee, a new GGR, covering 30,000 miles and having thirty participants, will be flagged off on June 30, 2018 from the same place; and Commander Abhilash Tomy of the Indian Navy is the only Indian, rather the only Asian, who has been invited to take part in it.

The sailors will skirt the Cape of Good Hope, pass through the Indian Ocean, skirt the coastline of Australia, cross the international date line and round the Cape Horn on the southern tip of South America before heading north and reaching the finish-line passing through the Atlantic Ocean once again.

A daunting itinerary, but commander Tomy is no stranger to such a journey, having circumnavigated the globe non-stop and unassisted in a sailing boat in 2013 to become the first Indian to achieve the feat.

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