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The Indian Navy's sail training ship INS Sudarshini entered Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Portugal, on 13 August 2026 as part of the ongoing Lokayan 2026 voyage.
The arrival completed a 19-day transoceanic passage across the Atlantic Ocean from Boston in the United States — the ship's second Atlantic crossing — after covering over 15,000 nautical miles on the deployment so far.
The Commanding Officer called on Comodoro Luís Nicholson Lavrador, Commander of the Azores Maritime Zone, with the port call covering professional interactions, operational replenishment and cultural exchanges.
The Azores lie in the North Atlantic roughly 1,600 km west of mainland Portugal, and are an autonomous region of Portugal. The archipelago's nine main islands fall into three widely separated groups: the eastern group (São Miguel, Santa Maria and the Formigas islets), the central group (Faial, Pico, São Jorge, Terceira and Graciosa) and the western group (Flores and Corvo). Ponta Delgada, where INS Sudarshini berthed, is the largest city and sits on São Miguel in the eastern group. Geologically the islands are the exposed peaks of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, at a junction of the North American, Eurasian and African plates — which is why the archipelago is volcanically and seismically active. Their mid-ocean position has made them a staging point for transatlantic passages since the age of sail, which is exactly the role they play in this voyage.
A sail training ship used to give officer cadets seamanship, navigation and character training under sail rather than engine power, and to act as a goodwill ambassador on overseas deployments.
The Indian Navy's earlier sail training ship and the class leader for Sudarshini, used for the same cadet training role and for international tall-ship events.
A Defence Public Sector Undertaking that builds patrol vessels, coast guard ships and the Navy's sail training ships, including INS Sudarshini.
A sail training ship has no substantial engine dependence for propulsion, so a cadet must read wind, sea state and tide and act with the whole crew to move the ship at all. That produces three things a simulator cannot: seamanship judgement under genuine physical consequence, teamwork under fatigue, and a feel for weather that carries over to any bridge. It is also why these ships double as diplomatic instruments — a tall ship entering a foreign port draws public attention that a frigate does not, and its port calls are built around cultural exchange rather than exercises. India's programme runs on two such ships, INS Tarangini (1997) and INS Sudarshini (2012), both based at Kochi, where the Navy's training establishments are concentrated under the Southern Naval Command.
Simple Analogy: Learning to sail a square-rigger before serving on a warship is like learning to drive on a manual gearbox — slower and harder, and it leaves you understanding what the machine is actually doing.
The port call and the courtesy visit to the Commander of the Azores Maritime Zone sit within a broader defence and maritime engagement between the two navies, alongside Portugal's role as an EU maritime state.
The Navy's other high-profile sailing deployments have used the sailing vessel INSV Tarini for all-women circumnavigation expeditions — the same sail-training ecosystem based at the Southern Naval Command, deployed for a different purpose.
Long overseas deployments by training ships are a low-cost instrument of naval presence, described in the release itself as carrying a message of maritime heritage, friendship and cooperation.
The Azores sit on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a triple junction of the North American, Eurasian and African plates — the standard example of a divergent boundary producing volcanic islands in mid-ocean.
GS Paper 1 > Geography > Oceans and Island Groups; GS Paper 2 > India and its Neighbourhood / Bilateral Relations
CDS/AFCAT General Knowledge > Indian Navy Ships and Deployments
General Awareness > Defence and Geography
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Atlantic island groups appear regularly in Prelims geography; Indian Navy ship names and their builders are staple content for CDS, AFCAT and SSC.
A sailing vessel with three or more masts, square-rigged on all but the aftermost mast — the rig of INS Sudarshini.
About 1.852 km; INS Sudarshini has covered over 15,000 nautical miles on this deployment.
The divergent plate boundary running down the Atlantic; the Azores are its exposed peaks at a plate triple junction.
A territory with its own legislature and government within a unitary state — the constitutional status of the Azores within Portugal.