The ship didn't come to Boston straight from India.She sailed through Norfolk, Baltimore and New York first, stopping to fly the tricolour at each port as part of the SAIL 250 celebrations and the International Naval Review 250 marking the United States' Semiquincentennial,and crowds turned up at every stop. Sudarshini even took part in the Grand Parade of Sails when Sail Boston 250 kicked off in July, sailing past Castle Island and the Seaport District before tying up at Boston Fish Pier.Raghuram Sastry, India's Consul General in Boston, boarded her at sea to watch the ship's grand entrance and later hosted a briefing on deck during a Captain's Reception. The ship also hosted members of the Indian diaspora and foreign naval delegations along the way, part of what the Navy calls a goodwill tour.Sudarshini has carried more than two hundred Navy and Coast Guard cadets on this voyage, called Lokayan 26, teaching them old school sail training the modern navy rarely needs anymore. Somewhere between the handshakes and the photo ops, cadets kept doing their actual jobs,hauling lines and trimming sails like it was any other Tuesday.
The Azores stop isn't the end of the road either. Lokayan 26 still has France on the itinerary,where Sudarshini is due to join the Escale à Sète festival later this year. Those two hundred plus cadets who've spent weeks hauling ropes across the Atlantic will keep training right through it.The Ministry of Defence called the ship a symbol of India's maritime strength and goodwill, and she's due into Ponta Delgada within the week.
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