COLOMBO: India's tallest sailing ship, the Tarangini, is completing its maiden round-the-world voyage after 15 months passing through exotic islands under the stars with an aircraft pilot at the helm.

Commander Mukul Asthana steered the Indian-built three-mast ship to Colombo harbour, the final port of call before heading back to India on Tuesday to close a journey begun in January last year. Asthana is a pilot usually at the controls of a Dornier maritime reconnaissance aircraft, but his posting as skipper of INS Tarangini, used to build friendships with colleagues overseas, underscores the multi-task training of naval personnel.

"I am essentially a maritime pilot, but I am also trained to be in this job," Asthana said of his duties since taking over command from Suva, Fiji nearly three months ago. The ship's name Tarangini is taken from the Hindi word Tarang which means waves and its crest has a swan teaching her young to fly and swim.

Naval pilot Asthana, adept at both, has 30 cadets plus a crew of 34, including seven officers, to help operate the vessel. The 54-metre (177-foot) long Tarangini is the only sail training ship with the Indian navy and has been in service since 1997. Three Sri Lankan navy officers will join the voyage on the final stretch.

A Sri Lankan officer had also joined the ship when it set sail from Cochin, a port in South India, on January 23, 2003. "The cadets here learn not just the ropes, but teamwork and endurance," Asthana said from the open bridge of the Tarangini, which carries nearly 1,000 square metres of sails and nearly five kilometres of rigging.

He is the third and final skipper of the vessel which has called at 37 ports in 17 countries in the past 15 months, travelling at a leisurely seven to eight knots. But it has not always been plain sailing.

Asthana said he had trouble with a storm in May last year near Greece and for three days the 513-ton vessel buffeted by heavy winds, causing some anxious moments. The journey from Puerto Villamil in the Galapagos to the islands of Nuku Hiva in French Polynesia was the longest passage of the voyage, according to the skipper's log.

The total distance of 3,015 nautical miles was covered in 22 days 22 hours and 20 minutes between November and December. About four-fifths of the stretch was covered using sails while engines were used for the rest due to bad weather.

With nearly 70 men aboard, two women officers could be like fish out of water. But not so for Commander Pradipta C. Hande and Lieutenant Commander Vijay Chaudhary who joined Tarangini at Singapore just over two weeks ago. -AFP