Dehradun: Having successfully led the six women naval officers’ team, which circumnavigated the global on a sail boat in a record-setting voyage of eight months, team leader Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi recalled on Monday how a video call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi motivated the entire team.“Our sail boat INSV Tarini had stop-overs at five ports with the first being in Freemantle Australia. It was the day of Diwali and we were about to leave for the second leg of our voyage, when we got a video call from PM Narendra Modi. It was a pleasant surprise as if someone from the family has called us on the auspicious occasion,” Joshi said. She added, “His words of courage gave us the strength to complete the journey while facing the toughest challenges.”The Naval officer recalled that the PM had also motivated the team before the start of the voyage. “He told us that he will be keeping a special track of our voyage. When he called on Diwali, he was in a jovial mood. He asked us if we had fights and how were we tackling tough situations,” she said, adding that the PM has asked the entire team to document their experience in either the form of a book or a CD so that it could help others in the future.Joshi said that the voyage gave them some real life lessons on how one has to face all challenges on their own and also the significance of team work. “At three places – Falkland Islands, Pacific and Mauritius — we faced extremely rough weather. The wind was coming at 140 km/hour. It was a real test of our physical and mental strength and we are happy at having successfully achieved the feat,” she added.Joshi along with her team-mate Lieutenant Payal Gupta was in the city to meet CM Trivendra Singh Rawat who lauded their efforts and termed it an outstanding achievement.The all-women crew covered 21,600 nautical miles since leaving Goa on September 10, 2017, travelling through five countries, crossing the Equator twice, and sailing across four continents and three oceans.

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