With a gentle heave-ho and a rush of sails, a six-member crew from the corps of engineers aka the `sappers' today kicked off a 100-day 11,000 km sailing expedition of South East Asia, called the Millennium Sailing Expedition.

The expedition was flagged off from the Naval Sailing Club, Colaba, on Monday evening. Amongst the goals of the expedition will be to reach the Andaman Islands on the night of December 31. ``The aim is to catch the first rays of the millennium sunrise,'' said team leader Major Sandeep Kapur.

According to calculations by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the first rays of the millennium sunrise will fall on Katchall island in the south Andamans.

In the course of its voyage to the SAARC and ASEAN nations, the yacht will also pass through the pirate-infested stretch of the Malacca Straits. ``Piracy is another fear but six sappers will be able to brave piracy or squalls,'' said MajorKapur. The expedition endeavours to study the ecology and environment of the area besides carrying goodwill messages for the governments of Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

The expedition has a total of 12-member crew with six members being on board at any given time. Besides Major Kapur, they include Major PS Dhillon, Captain Sanjoy Banerjee, Major Sumit Kabthiyal, Major DS Grewal, Brigadier TPS Chowdhury, Captain PP Singh, Captain A Karunakaran, Sapper Isak S, Lance Naik Babu, Colonel AP Singh and the lone woman officer Lieutenant Poonam Joshi.

The army initiative in a traditional naval bastion received its share of admiration from the naval top brass. ``They've stolen a march on us,'' said Vice Admiral Madhvendra Singh, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command, minutes before flagging off the yacht.

The millennium expedition will be the Trishna's sixth voyage since the yacht was purchased from the UK in 1985, which includes the first-ever round the world cruisebetween 1985 and 1987.