INS Sudarshini Ponta Delgada arrival came on Thursday, the Indian Navy sail training ship entering the Azores port after a 19 day passage across the Atlantic from Boston, as part of the Lokayan 2026 voyage. The Ministry of Defence said it was her second Atlantic crossing on the deployment.

The Portuguese Navy received the ship on arrival.

INS Sudarshini Ponta Delgada call opens with a courtesy visit

The Commanding Officer of INS Sudarshini, accompanied by the Defence Attache, called on Comodoro Luis Nicholson Lavrador, Commander of the Azores Maritime Zone. The Embassy of India in Lisbon said the meeting reaffirmed the longstanding friendship and the maritime bonds between India and Portugal.

The INS Sudarshini Ponta Delgada stop is to take in professional interactions, operational replenishment and cultural exchanges with the host navy over the days alongside.


A 19 day Atlantic passage from Boston

The leg into Ponta Delgada ran 19 days and carried the barque from the United States east coast to the mid Atlantic islands. It was the harder half of the deployment for a ship that works under sail, and the Indian Navy framed the completion as a test of the crew's seamanship and endurance.

Across the Lokayan 2026 voyage the ship has now logged more than 15,000 nautical miles.

The American leg before the crossing

Boston was the last of her calls in the United States. She departed the Massachusetts port in late July with her course set for the Azores, closing a summer on the American seaboard tied to that country's anniversary year.

The run took in the SAIL 250 events and the International Naval Review 250. Sudarshini had joined the Grand Parade of Sails into Boston, and earlier stood past the Statue of Liberty in the Parade of Sail on the Hudson at New York, with calls at Norfolk and Baltimore before that.

The Lokayan 2026 voyage

Lokayan 2026 has kept the ship at sea for most of the year. She sailed from Kochi in January on a transoceanic deployment that has taken her out through the Gulf of Aden and the Mediterranean, across to the Caribbean and up the American coast, carrying naval cadets who train on the passage. The Ministry of Defence recorded the Ponta Delgada arrival as the latest stop on that run.

A three masted barque under sail training

INS Sudarshini is a three masted barque of the Southern Naval Command at Kochi, built to carry officer cadets to sea and teach seamanship under canvas. Ponta Delgada, on Sao Miguel in the Azores, is her first Portuguese port on this deployment.