The Indian Navy’s sailing vessel “Mhadei” set sail from Visakhapatnam for her home port, Goa, after participating in the International Fleet Review. Unique to this seemingly normal voyage was that she was skippered and crewed by an all-women crew of Naval officers for the very first time. Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, a Naval Architect, was appointed as the first woman Skipper of Mhadei on 08 Feb 16 just prior to the return voyage. Mhadei is crewed by Lieutenant P Swathi, Lieutenant Pratibha Jamwal (Air Traffic Control specialists), Lieutenant Vijaya Devi and Sub Lieutenant Payal Gupta (both Education officers). The sixth member of the crew, Lieutenant B Aishwarya is a naval architect and is expected to join the boat shortly.