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“Surprise” moment for India’s ‘Titanium Man’ who traveled around the world

April 29, 2023
Sezarr

Cdr Abhilash Tomy (Retd) completes Golden Globe Race 2022

New Delhi:

Cdr Abhilash Tomy (Retd), one of only two people to have completed the world’s toughest solo sailing race, was pleasantly surprised while speaking to NDTV today. While he was talking about his experience of attending the Golden Globe Race 2022, his wife Urmimala went on air.

Commander Tommy said he hasn’t seen her in a long time. “The last time we saw each other was when I was in Tasmania, Australia, on a video call,” he said, and flashed a smile.

“Thank you so much for doing this,” Urmimala told NDTV.

Her husband, who is in France, replied, “The name Urmimala means a series of ocean waves.”

retired naval commander completed the circuit without stopping The world’s largest skier in a small boat without any electronic assistance, after South African sailor Kirsten Neuschäfer, at 1:30 p.m. today in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.

Commander Tommy credits his wife with encouraging him to follow his passion when, according to him, it would have been easier for her to ask him to stop going out to sea following an incident in 2018 that nearly ended his sailing career Done.

“The thing is, it was very easy for Urmi to say, ‘Take care of your family, don’t fall into this madness again. It’s standard, easy. Any Indian woman would have done that. But I think I Incredibly lucky.” ,

Commander Tommy had to recover from a serious injury five years earlier. In 2018, while participating in the same race, he was caught in a violent storm in the Indian Ocean, which capsized his boat and broke his spine.

In January 2019, Commander Abhilash Tomy left the Indian Navy to pursue his dream of giving the Golden Globe Race a second shot. This was his life’s mission.

“I have lost weight since the completion of this race,” he told NDTV today.

He had been on the boat for 236 days. “The boat is now a part of my life. In those days, I repaired many parts of the boat. Mast, steering, battery… I have left a signature on the boat,” he said.

It was not an easy journey. They encountered dangerous conditions ranging from “knockdowns” to severe storms.

In explaining what a “knockdown” is, Commander Tommy said that it is a condition when the boat is tilted at such an extreme angle that the mast comes under water and back up. He told NDTV, “Technically it is called a knockdown. But in a small boat it can be called a capsize.” “Imagine you live in a house and someone takes it and shakes it. Inside the boat, the diesel, the charts, the kitchen, everything goes flying. Everything’s a mess,” he said.

He had to use the boat’s bathroom door handle as a replacement for the rudimentary self-steering autopilot. “… I broke the toilet door and made it part of the rudder plate of the self-steering system. I also had to remove the anchor and use a part of it in this rudder system,” Commander Tommy elaborated. . Little by little she began to give up on the improvements she made to the boat’s form during the long, strenuous race. He managed to cover 10,000 miles with this incredible set-up.

“On January 26, when I wanted to unfurl the national flag, suddenly there was a storm that was not predicted in any weather model. I had waves that were at least eight meters high. The self-steering tiller had two Ropes I rowed continuously for 12 hours. Day turned into night. I couldn’t get inside the cabin to turn on the navigation lights, see the charts,” he said.

The race started on September 4, 2022 from Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, with 16 sailors from 11 countries. Only two of them managed to complete the grueling challenge, sailing non-stop. It tested his physical and mental endurance to the limit.

The only other finisher so far has been sailor Simon Curwen, who was forced to stop to resolve problems with his boat, in contrast to Abhilash Toomey and Kirsten Neuschäfer, who finished the race without stopping. Due to making the stop, Mr. Curwen was not awarded a podium finish.