Around the world with a titanium spine: Abhilash Tomy’s incredible maritime quest

Call of the sea: Abhilash has not set foot on land for more than 230 days, sailing non-stop in his attempt to circumnavigate the globe for a second time. Photo credit: Special Arrangement

Sometime later today, April 29, 2023, former Naval Commander Abhilash Tomy will finally set foot on land, 236 days after setting sail in pursuit of history, in what is considered the toughest, most dangerous and, by many accounts, craziest of endeavours — the Golden Globe Race (GGR).

A maritime race so challenging that, in its previous edition in 2018, only five of the 18 entrants could finish. This time around, only two have managed to do so, with a third en route — 16 had set off in an attempt to circumnavigate the world solo, non-stop, on boats as they existed back in 1968 and with none of the modern cutting-edge technology. And even though Abhilash will finish second — South African Kirsten Neuschafer, race leader for the longest time, arrived at the port of Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, in the early hours of Friday — his journey through the deep seas is nothing less than a miracle.

Why 1968? Because that is the year the original race started. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston won it, becoming the first person to achieve a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation, in 1969.

To attempt such a feat after coming back from a life-threatening, potentially paralysing accident five years ago in the same event is a measure of Abhilash’s strength and resilience. To put things in perspective: around 6,000 people have summited Mount Everest; 600 have gone into space but only 180 have ever managed a solo, non-stop circumnavigation — and Abhilash is the only Indian.

“Once he decides, it is final. The decision to participate this time around despite what happened in the previous edition was also very thorough and thought out. Being with Abhilash means knowing when to let go,” his wife Urmimala Nag says. That hasn’t stopped her from relentlessly keeping track of the race — and Abhilash aboard the Bayanat — over the last seven months. And while she has been patient enough all through, it is now a restless wait for her and their two sons as the finish line approaches.

The beginnings

In 2013, Abhilash became the first Indian to solo circumnavigate non-stop under the Indian Navy’s Sagar Parikrama 2 project. But the dream of having an Indian sail around the world, on the high seas, goes back to the 1990s, and one man who made it his life mission — Vice-Admiral (retd.) Manohar Awati, who kept writing to naval chiefs and corporate biggies, complete with a plan and a budget. It took Admiral Arun Prakash, in 2006, to finally acknowledge and agree to the project, named Sagar Parikrama.

Captain Dilip Donde put his hand up to undertake the journey, training and overseeing the boat’s building in Goa for the next three years before successfully completing the circumnavigation in 2009-2010 with four stops. Abhilash was one of the shorehands to assist him and Donde took him under his wing for INSV Mhadei’s next adventure in 2013.

“I was very much involved in his training back then but by the end of Sagar Parikrama 2, he had enough experience. Abhilash today is the most experienced solo sailor in the country. As a person he is very focused and driven on the goals he sets out for himself. I would say he has learnt his lessons well from the last race and the results are for everyone to see,” Donde told The Hindu.

Abhilash has come a long way after the agonising events of September 2018, when it needed 70 hours of a multinational rescue mission in the middle of nowhere to save his life.

In his own words: “After 82 days we were lying in third position when the storm overtook us. My boat was dismasted and destroyed, and I suffered a huge fall which left me with multiple spine fractures. And with pretty functionless legs. The remoteness? Couldn’t have been worse. The Antarctic was the nearest continent. We were exactly between Australia and South Africa, and south of India…[On the 18th day after the accident] Titanium rods were inserted in my spine and 5 vertebrae were fused into one…I had to learn to walk again…three and a half years later, I am heading back into the same race that almost got me killed.”

The struggle

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is real; and for Abhilash, the first three months of GGR 2022 were uncertain. The November 9 update on the official race website says, “His latest tweet suggests he is battling with the mind games of watching the leaders sail away and the others catching up.”

At the first check-point to hand over film rolls and mail near Cape Town, Abhilash was frustrated with the conditions and his own progress. On December 5, he crossed the 77th longitude of Ile Amsterdam. “We have exorcised our devils. The boat by rounding Cape of Good Hope and I by passing Cape Comorin at this latitude,” he posted. This was where his race ended in 2018.

The change in mindset was accompanied by a change in fortunes. “When I crossed that point where I had the accident, I felt light and that was a very physical experience. I felt something leave me,” he was quoted as saying in the race update. He started talking more and even wished Urmimala on their anniversary recently. “It is romantic! Precious few words that one has to hold on to in this age of excesses,” she declared.

He has had his share of struggles — lack of funding before UAE-based Bayanat came in; broken wind vanes that forced him to cut up the boat’s chart table and toilet door to make spares; losing the starboard runner; a fall that led to back pain and numb limbs, forcing him to go slow and rest with painkillers. “The biggest challenge is to repair equipment malfunctions. A sailor has to make do with whatever tools and spares s/he has on board,” Capt. Donde explained.

As the French port of destination looms closer with every nautical mile passed, the significance of Abhilash’s achievements is not lost on anyone. “It will be a great achievement and a proud moment for all of us. I hope the next generation of Indian sailors follows in his footsteps and we have more people going into the open sea for recreation and sport,” Donde said.

Urmimala sums it up thus: “It will mean everything. A closure, a personal triumph, a new paradigm for the next generation.”

And while Kirsten has sailed into the record books on her own, becoming the first woman to win the GGR, Abhilash’s successful voyage has written a new chapter in the annals of India’s maritime glories.