Dilip reached Australia in time to celebrate his birthday as well as Diwali 'the Festival of Lights'. Having completed the first leg successfully, he could see light at the end of the tunnel. He had grown confident of his, and Mhadei's, sailing capabilities and was ready to take on the Southern Ocean!

"Well, the first time you face a big one, you are convinced that it is the end of the world and you are not going to survive. The second time, you tell yourself you just might survive, as you managed the last time. The third time, you are sure you will come out of it alive as you have survived so far. When you are getting ready to face the tenth one, you are worrying that you may not be able to get hot food for the next few days! But to reach that state, you have to go through the first nine stages" Robin Knox-Johnston

We're recording this podcast a week at a time and attempting to align the sail dates with current dates. As a result we have reached Sunday 13 September 2009 in the course of Dilip's circumnavigation. A harrowing week in which he crossed into the 'Coldrums' and had to do emergency repairs on the pad eye that held the boom on Mhadei.

But, as always, he had the good fortune to see some whales up close; a memory that helped erase thoughts of bad weather and possible accidents!

The image shows where Dilip was 12 years ago on 4 Sep, 2009. A little dot in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Readers responded with kudos and more. One was inspired to poetry...

Sir, this short evocation for the Lord of the Seas (is there a special one for the trade winds?)

Dilip's entire sailing voyage is covered in his blog: sagarparikrama.blogspot.com. So if you find you can't wait to hear the next podcast, go ahead and read it up on his blog

Though Dilip only started blogging once he set sail, enthusiastic supporters were already sending in their wishes... 

"Am I inaugurating this page or what. If I am let me congratulate Cdr Dilip Donde on this extraordinary task he taken upon himself. It is a task where his mental mettle will be tasked to its limit. Not seeing a single face for days, may be weeks, while fighting for survival can be really arduous. I wish you the very best, and do anything, but DONT FALL OFF THE BOAT." August 5, 2009, Unknown

Dilip's blog posts were the only way for most people to follow along on his voyage. He has used those to give us a lungful of the seas. The original blog is a treat to read, laced as it is with loads of fabulous photographs.

Happy anniversary Skipper! Today is exactly 11 years since that said you cast off the lines and sailed out of Mumbai harbour.

You're not ready till you're ready. Dilip wrestles with the naval bureaucracy even as he counts down to his departure on August 19th!

Serendipitiously, we are recording this in the same month, in fact the actual recording was done on August 10th, the day Mhadei sailed to Mumbai in preparation for her maiden voyage. 

Dilip had initially planned two stops in his circumnavigation, but the powers-that-be decreed otherwise. He finally cast ashore at Fremantle, Australia; Lyttleton, New Zealand; Port Stanley, Falkland Islands and Cape Town, South Africa. 

As we recorded the later half of this chapter, the rain petered out, changing to a pitter pattern, providing a soothing backdrop to Dilip's voice, with the cicadas piping up as punctuation!