Meet Abhilash Tomy, who has just scripted history, and is rightly called Titanium Tomy

On September 21, 2018, a former Naval officer, adventurer and sailor Abhilash Tomy found himself caught in a vicious storm after having sailed for 82 days as part of the Golden Globe Race, world’s most difficult, tiring, gruelling and dangerous race, one that left him almost paralysed and struggling for life. The accident left him with titanium rods inserted into his spine and five vertebrae fused into one. The recovery period was difficult. As Abhilash learned to walk again, his wife Urmimala was pregnant, which meant she had to not only take care of herself but Abhilash too.

Cut to September 21, 2022, Abhilash faces breathlessness, tightening of jaws and neck, and an impending fear, something he calls “remnants” from the previous race. But he fought those and eventually emerged victorious, finishing second and scripting history by becoming the first Indian to solo circumnavigate the world, and complete the non-stop race on April 29. The battle with the sea is not easy, as Abhilash tells us in detail during our conversation; he’s seen the changing face of the sea, scary as he calls it, also admitting that he may actually have Stockholm syndrome, considering he went back to sea with love while it tried to kill him previously. Well, but like they say, love triumphs, and so did Abhilash.

His is a story of guts, determination, and focus. Back now after sailing for 236 days, Abhilash tells us he still wakes up randomly to check if his boat needed attention — the boat, the other protagonist in this story.
 

Excerpts from our conversation:

What you have achieved is no mean feat, so how do you feel now after 236 days at the sea? Tired?
The first thought was of relief, because I had it (the 2018 accident) at the back of my head. I kept thinking anything can go wrong till I finish.  I had to be extra careful as I wanted to make sure that at least I could finish this circumnavigation. And now I’m very happy that I was able to bring the boat back and cross the finish line. 

After a near death experience in 2018, which left you almost paralysed, you set out for the same race again. What made you do that?
I think that’s my nature. Typically, I would say I work like a bull. I’m slow. But I don’t give up. If I have an ambition, I will chase it for years till I get it. I was in the second standard when I decided to join the Navy. I nurtured that dream till I was 17. And I made sure that I joined the Navy. I wanted to become a pilot and a sailor and that’s exactly what I did. I think it’s just my nature to not give up.

That’s amazing to know. Would you take us back to 2018? What exactly went wrong?
Well, I was doing the Golden Globe Race in 2018 on a 32 feet boat, which is quite small. And I had been sailing for 82 days; I had pulled up to the third position within 100 miles of the guy who was at number two. And I was struck by a very vicious storm in the middle of the Indian Ocean — exactly between Australia and South Africa and dead south of India, very close to the French sub Antarctic territories, which is a group of four isalnds. The storm was so vicious that people say it had my name on it; it swept through the Indian Ocean and died immediately. But in that short time, it created mayhem with such tremendous affect that my boat capsized two times. In the second time, I got separated from the boat, and found myself at the end of the mast. When the boat straightened, I was on top of the mast, which is about 10 meters. I fell on to an aluminum pole, hit my back and then about 30 minutes later, realised I couldn’t stand; my legs were not obeying me. So I had to send a message asking for rescue. For the next three and a half days, I was in the boat just waiting for somebody to turn up. Then a French fisheries petrol boat turned up and transferred me to Amsterdam Island. Another three days later, an Indian Navy ship called Satpura landed at Amsterdam Island and they transferred me via helicopter to the ship that took me back to India. And after 16 days from the date of the accident, I saw hospital for the first time. I had an MRI scan and they found four fractures in my spine. I was immediately put in a special aircraft, sent to Delhi and operated upon. 

Also read: Here is what Goa has to offer in the area of adventure sports in India

How was the recovery period? The thoughts you had during that time?
Well, it was difficult; I needed to just get up from a chair. I had to learn to walk. And that was a time when my wife was pregnant. Ideally, I should have been looking after her, but she ended up looking after herself and me. I had to undergo therapy every day, which was quite painful. But in six months, I was cleared by the Navy to get back on my feet. 

Was that the period when you decided you would race again?
No. I decided to do this (GGR this year) when I was lying in my boat after the accident, because suddenly, I had a lot of free time; I had met with an accident, was waiting for help; had no pressure of sailing, so I could make plans for the future. I was planning what sort of boat to buy, what sort of team to set up and how to look for a sponsor. 

How did you prepare yourself physically, emotionally, and mentally for this race?
Physical preparation was basically therapy. When I got back to normal, I think that was good enough to sail a boat. And when you start working on a boat, your body automatically changes and adapts to that particular boat. I think emotionally and psychologically, the fact that you want to do it, just because you want to have that experience again, is reason enough, you don’t need any further preparation. Now, if somebody forced me into going around the world, again, that would be a different story; but here, I wanted to do it. And I had a lot of support and faith from my family. In fact, whenever I would broach the topic of going back to the sea again, I was scared of broaching it, but they were very encouraging. After the race, my brother and I had a chat, and he told me, ‘I’m proud of you not because you finished it (the race), but because you decided to go back again’.

Was there anyone who told you not to go back to the sea, though?
There were people, but they said it out of concern. And I did consider what they said. They said ‘don't play to the gallery’ as in, ‘don't do it for personal accolade’. And that was very sensible.

And you didn’t do it for personal accolade…
You cannot do it for accolade because even a single word of appreciation you get will come only after eight months. It's not like a stadium match where fans are cheering and you're pumped up by that and you run faster and chase a ball faster.

Please tell us about the challenges you faced at the sea? 
There were incredible amount of challenges. First, I didn’t realise but I had a little bit of remnants of, you know, the last accident still within me. And I realised that I had that problem only when I was at sea in this race. I clearly remember experiencing, breathlessness, shortness of breath, and tightening of the jaws, neck… on 21 September, the day on which the accident had happened.
I had similar problems close to the geographical point where I had the accident when I was crossing that. And as soon as I crossed that point, I felt completely light. So yeah, that was one aspect of it.
The other was that I didn’t really have time to prepare the boat very well. I just had a month and a half, and the boat started giving a little bit of trouble. For example, the self steering broke and I repaired it with a toilet door and then the hatch cover was off. And finally, I used my anchor to steer the boat. I had electrical blackouts; I had to remove the guardrail and climbed the mast and put new running backstay. Literally every day I had a new problem — my mainsail stitch tore towards the end; it was like a four meter rip, so I took the mainsail completely off the mast to get inside and spent about 26 hours stitching it and putting it back.

So you learn all this before you set out?
No, you don’t learn any of these before you set out. What you carry are tools — not physical tools, but tools like intelligence, experience, and a knack to invent; the ability to deal with such stress, you carry them as tools, and employ them to find the solution when the problem arises.

In this race, you were at the tiller for 12 hours! Why was that?
That was a day when the wind suddenly picked up without any warning. And it went from 15 knots to roughly maybe 60. And the control lines of my autopilot just slipped out; I had the tiller in my hand and had to continuously steer because if I left it to put the lines back, the boat would topple. It started during daytime and the winds wouldn’t stop and I kept steering for 12 hours. It was very difficult on my back. The time moved on from day to night. And I couldn’t see anything; I couldn’t see the direction of the wind because I could not switch on a light. I couldn’t see the compass because I coudn’t go inside and switch on the compass light. And finally, I managed to for a split second, rush inside, switch on the lights and pick up a head torch and came out to continue steering, all this without any food, nothing till the wind came down. And that was over 12 hours of hand steering!

Also read: Let’s go H2Ohh!

Talking about food, what did you eat while sailing?
I had a few kinds of food. I had some food from different food research laboratories. Then I had regular rice and a lot of cans of meat.  I used to cook rice and have it with meat. So that was the mainstay.

What about water consumption?
We are not allowed to carry RO plant, which converts seawater to freshwater; we also cannot have plastic bottles. You can have a tank and jerry cans. I had 270 liters when I started off, which means roughly one litre per day, that’s what we consume. The idea is to substitute with rainwater. But it’s not so easy, because it’s not like it rains and you suddenly have water. In the beginning, I was not very successful. But on the return leg, I managed to catch 100 litres plus of water. But otherwise, I was mostly on one litre a day; cooking rice in seawater; and having one glass of water in two days, and really conserving water.

Were you able to sleep? Did you sleep at all?
That’s interesting, because if you don’t sleep, you end up with hallucinations. You have to sleep. So sometimes when you know the weather is going to be very steady and there are no ships around, you can sleep a little longer. But otherwise, every 20 minutes you’re getting up and checking if things are fine; if there’s a ship, if something’s changed; if the boat needs attention. So, usually, it’s only one hour a day. On the day I finished the race, I slept only one hour at night. 

What all did you see around you? What was the most interesting thing and what was the scariest?
The interesting things were scary. There are clear signs that the sea is changing, and not in a good way. I saw flying fish at 41 degrees south; you don’t see it beyond 23 degrees usually. I saw Albatross way north of where they should have been. I saw the Sargasso Sea way south of where they should be. I saw them at two degrees south of the equator — they don’t come so far south. So the sea is changing, and it’s going to have a big impact on what’s happening on land. I had sunburns at 40 degrees south and that place is known as the roaring 40, it is supposed to be windy and dangerous, but I had no wind; I had sunburns. And in the North Island of New Zealand, there were like one cyclone every week. It was really crazy!

Also read: Private island resort Kandima Maldives offers plenty of enjoyable water sports and luxuries

Did you feel lonely? And if you did, how did you fight it?
I’m very happy being alone. I would call it solitude, which is the glory of being alone. I never feel lonely. In fact, I have often been asked what I did for entertainment while I was sailing. The truth is I didn’t have to do anything because I don’t get bored. I can be alone for as long as I want.

When you look back at the journey, do you think you were competing with yourself? Or was it a connection with a higher being?
When you set out to do a race like this, you have to be open to the end result; the outcome is always unknown; and you don’t go with a set of beliefs and try to validate them. Personally, I wanted to finish the race — that was my primary goal. But I also knew that I will have a lot of experiences, which could be spiritual or otherwise. And I will have my demons coming out and will need to tame them. 

Do you want to take us through the technology part of the boat — how well equipped was it?
So the idea is to race the boat around the world using 1960s technology. Anything that did not exist in 1968 cannot be used — no GPS, no electronic watches, no mobile phones, no satellite phones. It was a simple boat. And you navigate using what’s called a sextant, with a lot of chart tables with which you do vertical trigonometric calculations to determine where you are. And yeah, I mean, it’s quite simple and difficult like that. There’s no way to communicate with your family, because satellite calls to your family are not allowed. But the thing is you do have a lot of high tech emergency devices; so if anything happens, you can press a button and the rescue centers are alerted about distress. 

What about sponsors? How did you go about arranging that?
It was quite simple for me. I started a crowd-funding campaign. At the same time, I reached out to a few friends who started sending messages all over the world, looking for sponsors. I found Bayanat like that. They found value and a strong connection in it. And the CEO of Bayanat told me, ‘If you cross the start line, that’s victory enough. Every mile you sail after that is a bonus’. I also had support from Jellyfish Motorsport, which is my conservation partner. I am very glad they believed in me, and because of which I am back.

In an article, your wife said that, ‘to be with him (you) is knowing when to let him go’. We are sure she is a great support…
Her name is Urmimala, which means a string of ocean waves. One day after the accident, I had a little chat with her and I asked her, ‘Would you have married me if I were in any other profession?’ She said, ‘no’. I told her then that I need to go back to the sea, and immediately understood it. The sea, you see, is a strong connection between us. 

If you were to write a book, what would the chapter on this experience be called?
Unfinished Business.

So then let me ask you, are you looking to go on another sailing expedition?
The first thing I want to do is to go home to my family, have fish curry rice and malabar parotta. I don’t sail as a profession. I don’t make an income out of it. So, I need to balance these long voyages with something to support my family. But I love the sea. In fact, I tell people, I have Stockholm syndrome. The sea tries to kill me and I try to love it back. So yeah, I will be looking forward to more experiences at the sea, but maybe not something that lasts eight months. At the same time, I’m also playing a role in the administrative part of sailing in India. I’m a council member of the Yachting Association of India. I’m also a member of a few sailing clubs. 

After 236 days, how does life away from the sea feel? Has the feeling sunk in yet?
Oh, definitely. I mean, you look at the number of people around you, and you know you are not at the sea. But when I’m sleeping, I sometimes feel I am back to the sea, and then I wake up randomly, and want to check if everything’s fine, or if my boat needs attention, like I would do when I was sailing.

What are the changes that you see in yourself? Has the sea or the experience changed something in you? 
There are a lot of psychological and physical changes. I have been living with a finite set of resources, making repairs as your survival depends on that, so, when you come back to normal, everything feels like an excess. So much so that when you’re back your respect for resources is quite tremendous. On a psychological level also, it kind of dissolves a lot of learned behaviour, and your ideas of morality and such things change.

You could have finished first in this race, did that play on your mind?
Not at all. I believe people saw it as a victory for man. I was reminded of Ernest Hemingway who said that man cannot be defeated.

You listened to your heart and you went ahead with GGR despite the accident, what is your message to all those youngsters who want to listen to their hearts?
Take the risk. It’s worth it. That’s what life is all about. However, understand that I didn’t one day suddenly decide to pick a boat and go around the world and cast off those lines. I’ve got at least 25 years of experience sailing. It’s a slow process, have faith in yourself and keep taking a little bit more risk with each thing you do.

How is sailing different as compared to other sports?
We are as competitive; we are trying to figure out who will come first, and all of that. But we also know that in a way, the common enemy is the sea; it’s not the other guy. And many times in the history of sailing it has happened that a competitor has come to rescue you; it is your duty as a seaman to go and rescue somebody who is in distress. Before the start of this race, I had a coalition, and I somehow managed to get the boat on land. I had not slept; was in a very bad mental state. And there was a Turkish guy who was a competitor, he came and told me, ‘Why don’t you go take a shower?’ I said, ‘okay’, and I went to the common toilets, and had a long shower. By the time I came back, I had three of my competitors clean the entire boat, remove all the scales, tidy up things, even my breakfast was ready. That’s how sailing is different from other sports.

Apart from you, the other protagonist in this entire journey is your boat. What is the connection that you have made with your boat? 
It’s a body and soul connection. I think I’m the soul and the boat is the body. So the boat enables you to have physical experience. And I feel like the moment I leave the boat, the boat’s character changes, and it will assume the character of the next guy who sails it. But this boat is forever going to be a big part of my life.

 rupam@newindianexpress.com
@rupsjain