Mangaluru: The 5 KAR Naval Unit of NCC Mangaluru organized a River Sailing Expedition for the Naval NCC cadets whcih was flagged off at Lobo’s River View here, on September 1.
Fifty NCC cadets, i.e 20 girls and 30 boys, from seven colleges will be taking part in the expedition. Swimming and enthusiasm for the expedition is mandatory for every participating cadet.
N Sharat Bhandary, the Chairman of permanent Lok Adalat Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chikmagaluru and Shivamogga, flagged off the River Sailing Expedition.
Speaking to Mangalorean.com, the Commanding Officer Naval unit NCC Mangaluru, Captain M C Beliappa said that this sailing expedition is being held for the Naval NCC Cadets after a gap of nearly 10 years. Earlier, the expeditions were carried out in the open sea, but due to the risks involved in such an undertaking, it was shifted to rivers.
The cadets were chosen based on their swimming prowess, containing a mixed array of senior cadets and first years. “Some cadets do not know to swim, so we hired a swimming expert because we wanted the girl cadets to also take part. The expedition covering 200 km is spread across 8 days starting from today. We chose 1 September to start the expedition because the monsoon is receding and this is ideal for us. We will be sailing from here to Sultan Battery till lunch.”
“While two batches will be leaving for the expedition, the rest will take part in other activities like training, quizzes, etc. The idea is to make a team of 17 boys and 13 girls from these candidates to represent Mangaluru at the national level camp which is coming up on the 12th of September in Udupi,” he added.