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Commander Abhilash Tomy has been rescued and now he is safe. But perhaps the three days he spent in that dismasted boat in the middle of the mighty Indian Ocean were perhaps the toughest days of his life and he had no qualms accepting it.
“The deep sea was scary as hell. It was so, so bad. That sight, it was something I had never seen before in my life,” said champion sailor Commander Abhilash Tomy over a satellite phone from Île Amsterdam to HT.
The 39-year-old is now recovering from the back injury and PM Modi’s call further helped his feel better. PM Modi tweeted, “Every Indian is praying for his quick recovery. I also compliment the teams that were involved in his rescue.”
The 70-hour ordeal at the dismasted boat ‘Thuriya’ that started on September 21 when the powerful wind knocked down the boat running for the Golden Globe Race. After the boat was hit by storming waves, it tilted at a 110-degree angle and sending its mast under water.
“It was scary as hell. When the first knockdown happened, I was swept off my feet. I fell down to the mast and put my hands around it. I got swept outward to the tip of the mast. And then a few seconds later when the boat straightened, I found myself hanging from the top of the mast,” said Tomy, non-stop hiccups interrupting his conversation with this reporter.
“The hiccups haven’t stopped since the mishap. I have some problem in speaking because of that,” said Tomy.
“My watch got entangled in it. I was hanging by one hand.”
“I felt my wrist would crack. Then the watch strap snapped and I came crashing down to the boom attached to the mast on the deck,” he said on Thursday.
“But this beast was something else. The wind speed was more than 150 kmph and there were 14-metre-high waves. The sea was so bad that there was not an inch of water that was not white. There was sea foam everywhere. Every millimetre of water was ripped up by hurricane-force winds,” said the decorated sailor, who has sailed more than 52,000 miles in his naval career spanning 18 years.
The winds and waves were becoming more powerful with every passing moment.
Spoke to @abhilashtomy and enquired about his wellbeing. Every Indian is praying for his quick recovery. I also compliment the teams that were involved in his rescue.
I have fond memories of my meeting with Abhilash, when he came with the team of INSV Tarini. pic.twitter.com/Yefo9l4Ksu— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 27, 2018
“I had to take off every sail on the boat. The wind was so powerful that I couldn’t steer the boat. I tried every trick in the book. Nothing worked. The storm was not letting the boat move in any direction. The boat was 90 degrees to the wind. I was not able to align it with the wind to reduce impact. It was something I had never seen before in my life,” he said.
A falling barometer indicated the worst was yet to come.
“The reading one day before was 1,020 millibar. It dropped to 970. That’s a drop of 50mm. A cyclone was forming in the sea and I was in the middle of it,” he said.
“The gas stove had flown off and it was hanging by the hose of the cylinder. Gas was leaking into the boat. I somehow lifted it and put the stove back. I then shut the gas supply. Barely had I done that that I could smell diesel leaking into the boat, right next to the engine. I couldn’t fix that,” he further explained the ordeal.
“My back was gone,” he said.
