January 25, 2004
Newindpress on Sunday
Saturday January 24 2004 19:56 IST
IANS

MUMBAI: Battling the elements on a narrow yacht with only the most
rudimentary technical aids, like a sundial fashioned from a coconut shell,
five sailing enthusiasts are on a three-week voyage from Mumbai to Koteshwar
in Gujarat.

Charting the coastline from Mumbai to the very end of Gujarat, where India
ends and Pakistan begins, the 1,000 nautical mile voyage that will end on
February 11 is in preparation for another, more ambitious voyage.

The sailors, calling themselves the Maritime Exploration and Research Group,
is getting ready to follow the path of ancient Indian mariners from south
India all the way to Indonesia.

Inspired by the Chola kings of the 11th century, who discovered the
present-day Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Bali, the group is preparing
to replicate the feat using traditional instruments and a boat resembling
the vessels of yore.

"There won't be any modern nautical aids like the compass, global
positioning systems or two-way radios," said Vivek Ganpule, technical
officer with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), who expects
to take part in the expedition.

Called the Simulation of Chola Navigation Techniques, the forthcoming
expedition will attempt to cover the distance between Nagapatnam in southern
India and the Indonesian islands.

"The expedition will aim to show that our ancient seafarers were in no way
inferior to their Western counterparts," said B. Arunachalam, a researcher
who is the moving spirit behind the expedition.

Though Arunachalam won't be sailing, Ganpule, his TIFR colleagues S.N.
Kulkarni and M.N. Solapurkar, veteran sailor Sadanand Chunekar and
Mumbai-based journalist Sandeep Unnithan are getting ready for the big
adventure.

They need to organise the finances, build a timber boat just like the
ancient mariners did and then they will set sail.

Till then, the five-member group has already embarked on a "less
adventurous" voyage from Mumbai to Koteshwar aboard a Seabird-class yacht.

Though the Seabird-class yacht that left the shores of Mumbai Tuesday is
designed only for harbour sailing, the team hopes to sail through the
journey.

The yacht is merely 22 ft long by 7.5 ft at the beam with no protection
against the elements and no facilities like toilets either. However, a small
outboard engine has been fitted to the boat as a backup should the winds
fail.

The group has halts scheduled every night along the coast, though a 30-hour
long stretch from Daman to Diu has been scheduled.

A number of old pieces of equipment, like the coconut shell sundial and a
'ra-palagai' comprising two tiny tile bits attached to a long string with
knots at specified intervals to measure the vessel's speed at night, are
being tested during the current voyage.

The sailors will also use their hands to take measurements.

The sailors said ancient sea manuals used by the old sailors of Kutch along
the Gujarat coast would aid them. A few of these manuals from the National
Museum in New Delhi have been tapped for the current expedition.

According to Unnithan, the expedition has cost the team members nearly
Rs.100,000 but they have received substantial assistance from the Indian
Navy.

Naval authorities have provided the team with two-way radios and assistance
along the coast, said the journalist who is on his maiden expedition.