April 5: Braving the stormy north-east wind and roaring sea, covering the gruelling distance of about 6000 nautical miles in 69 days, the Indian Customs team finally arrived at Indira dock on Wednesday, after completing the Jaycus III Millennium Sailing Expedition 2000.Carrying a goodwill message to countries of South-East Asia, the Indian sailing team left Mumbai on January 26 and covered Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (New delhi) and Mumbai Customs Yacht Club-organised expedition, led by Rohit Pardeshi, was sponsored by New India Assurance, Bank of India, BPCL and Nike. There were 16-crew members who joined the expedition at different legs.These included SP Singh, YG Parande, Karnail Singh, Gurbans Singh, S Joseph, AV Rajguru, NN Mhatre, NS Patel, KM D'Souza, KP Rao, PR Sanal Kumar, Rajesh Poojari, Kasinath Nandgaonkar, Meezan and the lone woman Asawari Patwardhan, all belonging to different ranks and file of Central Excise and Mumbai Customs.Recalling their experience, Pardeshi said on two occassion, they faced trouble at high seas. First, at about 30 nautical miles from Galle (Sri Lanka), when pirates tried to board the yacht. Pardeshi said when they saw the Indian flag and also met with some resistance from the crew members, they went back. In the other incident, yacht Jaycus III, which is 32 feet long, 10 feet and seven inches wide, facing heavy wind pressure, was about to collide with a huge vessel passing by at One Fetham Back, close to Malaysia. Crew members brought down two sails and somehow managed to change the direction and avoided the accident.The expedition team went through Goa, Kochi, Galle, Nicobar, Singapore, Phuket, Lakhshadeep and returned to Mumbai. The only female member of the team, Asawari, said that she had just to have been able to see a giant whale and some dolphins at Kochi.The family members of the expedition team, who were eagerly awaiting information back home, were kept updated here by Rohit Pardeshi's wife Karuna. She kept in touch with the expedition team with the help of HAM wireless and then passed on information to their family members.Chief Commissioner of Customs GS Tampi honoured the team members at a function organised to commemorate the completion of the expedition.
