This Sailor’s Odyssey
He tasted freedom and came back to land a different man. Abhilash Tomy on the 23,100 nautical miles he covered alone
Lt Commander of the Indian Navy, Abhilash Tomy has been written about aplenty in the past year for bringing the country great glory through his oceanic adventure. On March 31, 2013, Tomy became the first Indian, second Asian, and seventy-ninth person to complete a solo, unassisted, non-stop circumnavigation under sail after having gone out to sea on November 1, 2012, aboard INSV Mhadei as part of the Indian Navy’s Sagar Parikrama project. Based in Mumbai now, Tomy has since his arrival addressed at least 25,000 people on his journey, travelled extensively and given talks at various forums on the topic of circumnavigation and conservation of our oceans. He has also been awarded the Kirti Chakra (second highest peacetime gallantry award in India) and the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award.
On his circumnavigation, Tomy says, “That had been a long-term dream. I’ve had a fascination for the oceans since I was a child. I learnt about Trishna, an army expedition that went around the world with army officers and men, which piqued my interest. I opted to join the Navy after Class XII despite having cleared engineering and medicine entrances. I took up sailing as a sport at the Naval Academy and kept taking part in sailing events through my career.” That is when ocean sailing happened to him. “I sailed onboard the ERT1 and the Eldemer. Then Commander Dilip Donde asked if I could help him with his circumnavigation. Then the opportunity came to me to do the same non-stop and unassisted, which I grabbed,” says the 35-year-old.
Flagged off in Mumbai, the boat headed to Cape Leeuwin, Australia, Cape Horn, South America, and rounded the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, before heading back to domestic shores. Apart from being physically trying, a journey like this can take its toll on the mind. But he braved it all with meditation, reading and star gazing. Strains of ‘Musafir hoon yaaron..’ from Parichay and reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez kept him going. “Solitude was the biggest luxury on board,” he says.
His adventures onboard are many to describe — from a failed water treatment plant to rain water harvesting, taking a bath in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans even at six degrees to going without a bath for 50 days and living on a litre of water a day. He also tells us that the voice of a woman on the radio was the first he heard after 88 days at sea — it reminded him of the aroma of fresh food, clean linen and warm heated floors.
The Impact
This bibliophile’s life hasn’t been the same since he took that voyage around the world. “I have changed for sure. And it matters and I am glad that the changes have stuck and I have not gone back to what I was before I left on the voyage. Having lived under such trying circumstances for months where any day could have been my last, I feel life on land is much easier. And I do end up taking it much less seriously. What I earlier considered to be success doesn’t mean much to me and a lot of worldly things have lost their significance. For one, I can say that I tasted freedom, and that too in an unparalleled way, and I have realised that most of the things that I was running after would never have made me happy. Now I live with less and I am happy no matter what.”
Life Now
Tomy says, “I am glad that my last voyage generated so much interest in a country that is known to be sea blind. And I do have a lot of plans for the future, stuff that should inspire our youth to believe that any ordinary man can do extraordinary things!” He adds, “Life has changed in a way but that doesn’t matter. The noise has not yet died, it has only subdued a bit. Wherever I go, I am greeted with so much enthusiasm that it doesn’t
seem as if the noise has died. Every time I give a talk on the voyage, I end up reliving my experiences. Sure, I do miss it and I look forward to going back.”
His father was a Naval officer and his mother is a homemaker. His brother is an IT professional in New Zealand. He is equally passionate about flying and has tried a hand at learning classical guitar. He also carries his camera around to capture rare moments. For those expecting words of wisdom on becoming an achiever like him, he only chuckles, “Stay
single,” an honest response, since there is no diplomacy at sea.
An Excerpt from Tomy’s Voyage Diaries
The exhilaration of entering our names into the history books was also diluted with the sadness that comes when good things come to an end, but then the latter feeling had been the more overpowering of the two because I had not set out to create a record or bring back a trophy but rather for the experience of it all. In the last one hundred and fifty days, I had fallen in love with the sea and with the boat that had carried me around the globe whose portholes offered me a window seat view of the most magnificent and life like motion picture I would ever see in my life. It had been a most interesting voyage, one that was not undertaken alone but in the company of hibernating grasshoppers and dragonflies, curious whales and smiling dolphins, loyal albatrosses and even more loyal fans. We had happily dealt with the absence of a chopping board, the inquisitiveness of Sri Lankan fishermen, the death and resurrection of dragonflies, suicidal flying fish, bone chilling cold, ghost icebergs, foggy sunless months, the terror of land sightings, solitary human voices in the middle of the ocean, hallucinatory dreams, desiccating heat and come back to tell exaggerated tales of it all.
Learn to Stay on Top of the Waves
The training department of the Yachting Association of India (YAI) has updated their National Training Schemes under Small Boat, Power Boating, Windsurfing and Keelboat schemes, to provide a pathway for anyone wishing to enter the sport. According to YAI, if you intend to start on a small boat, a basic level of fitness is required and it is suggested that you can swim at least 50 m. For all boats, there are some basic safety equipment to help you get started like a personal flotation device/lifejacket, cap, shoes and sailing gloves. As you advance through sailing, you may require additional equipment such as wet/dry suits for offshore racing or trapeze harness for skiffs and high performance dinghies. You can go to the nearest Sailing Club to enroll.
Some popular yacht clubs are Royal Bombay Yacht Club, Barrackpore Harbour Yacht Club and Royal Madras Yacht Club. India’s first National Sailing Club was established at The Boat Club in Bhojtal, a lake in Bhopal. The Yacht Club in Hyderabad also supports the Sailing Academy. The Tamil Nadu Sailing Academy also offers training in sailing and other water sports and is affiliated to the Sailing Association of India and other yacht clubs. The Kerala Sailing Academy in Panangad, Ernakulam is also popular. Aquasail Yachting Academy, Mumbai, offers various courses for adults and children, ranging from basic to advanced, structured as per international standards. You can learn to sail, powerboat, cruise, windsurf, multihull and go on camps. Corporate sailing packages are also offered for recreation.
Gliding in a parasail is immensely popular at these destinations
Billing Valley, Himachal Pradesh, is popular for having hosted some international and world cup competitions for paragliding. Manali – you can choose to fly from sites like Gulaba and Phatru in the Kullu valley (the Valley of Gods) Dyar and Bijli Mahadev (another name for the Shiva temple) are other popular sites in Kullu where the local priest can guide you for takeoff and give you basic instructions Several adventure teams like Nirvana Adventures, Mumbai, and Indus Paragliding School, Pune also provide classes for those interested to take it up.
You can also join the Association of Paragliding Pilots and Instructors provides a paragliding license based on a high level of paragliding, and an education system that is recognized internationally among all APPI schools worldwide, and partner Associations and Federations. Their courses include the first degree in paragliding, the Open Sky Pilot, the Adventure Pilot, APPI Solo Pilot and Advanced Pilot lessons.
The APPI flight schools and flight centres are Temple Pilots Paragliding School, PG Fly and Paragliding Mantra in Pune, Hi Fly and PG Gurukul in Bir, Indus Paragliding in Mumbai, and Space Apply in Virar, Maharashtra. For details, visit www.appifly.org. Paragliding classes for student, trainee and club pilots are held by Temple Pilots in Pune.
Visit www.paraglidingindia.in
The Sky is His Playground
Debu Choudhury took his love for flying to the greatest heights and longest routes in India
Debu Choudhury was just like us as a child. He wanted to fly. So he spent hours making model planes and parachutes and playing with them. Then, when he was 11, he saw a paraglider and thought to himself, “Wow that looks like fun!” Three years down the line, he got his chance to paraglide in Solang after informal training on how to defy gravity and go with the forces of the wind.
“They said to me, you run and then steer with these two lines and pull them both when you land. That was about it. So I would be there every weekend during the summer and help carry gliders up the hill for others and at the end of the day I would get one or two little flights.”
By the end of the year, he was playing hooky from school to paraglide more often, but always managed to pass in school. When he turned 16, his parents gave in to persistent nagging and bought him his first paraglider and then there was no stopping him.
This 34-year-old has since pioneered many routes like the one from Bir to Manali in Himachal Pradesh and has won the 16th overall spot in a World Cup event, has his name in the Top 50 of the world rankings for paragliding and has earned himself the tag of being one of India’s most experienced competition pilots. “The Bir to Manali flight is done quite often these days, but in 2000, I was the first to do it with a friend. It’s not the longest flight, but you have to cross some pretty extreme terrain. I was also the first to fly more than 200 km in India in 2009 when I did a 211 km flight from Bir,” says Choudhury. He’s also a world class acro pilot, and has participated in the acro world cup circuit between 2004 and 2007.
Paragliding as a sport is expensive, but is getting more popular. “I am hoping to set up a good base for paragliding here in Manali, and am looking to try and help young upcoming pilots to improve and learn more about paragliding,” says Choudhury. He has also spent some time in the Alps, in Europe, working with a paragliding school.
On being asked what the best view he’s ever seen is, he says, “Being at 6,300 metres above the Rohtang Pass in Manali, it was breathtaking to see the mountains stretching into the distance on every side of me.” Choudhury tells us that paragliding has instilled a huge respect for nature in him and a deep love for the mountains. “I have also made some amazing friends through paragliding; the community is great as one passion really brings us all together.”
His love for the mountains also got him hooked on to trekking, snowboarding, climbing and mountain biking. “But my current craze is fly fishing for trout, and kite boarding, which I think I will be doing a lot more of,” he says.
Born to an Italian mother and a Bengali father, he grew up in Manali, which made it ideal for his craze with paragliding and trekking. His wife is French and they have a three-year-old son, Manu. His brothers live in New Delhi.
“I’m trying to base myself in Manali, but it’s hard for me to stay in one place as I have been following the flying season around the world for the past 14 years.” He also spent a whopping eight hours and five minutes on a 220 km triangle flight from Bir, the longest ever, last year in April.
He is associated with the The Paragliding Association of India, for the three years that it has been operating. He is also teaching advanced paragliding, such as “cross-country flying and manoeuvre clinics. “These are very important for young pilots to do and we need these kinds of courses in India, as there are a lot of people teaching basic stuff. But after that, the students need training for the next level, so I will be concentrating mainly on this. Courses vary according to the level of students and the time they have. Usually, these courses last four-five days, and can cost `5,000-8,000 a day.” (For more information, visit www.hi-fly.in.s113112.gridserver.com/?page_id=64)
His only advice to those who want to take up adventure sports is, “Never get overconfident, respect nature and be humble. When something goes wrong while paragliding, it can be very quick and the consequences dire.”
— preethi@newindianexpress.com