Mumbai:
It was a hero's welcome for the two sailors. They are back home after their 18-month long ordeal in South Korea.
After months of legal tangles, battling charges of negligence and pollution, they are now back home, reunited with their families and ready to make a new beginning.
"I just want to go back home and spend time with my family," said Captain Jaspreet Chawla, one of the freed sailors.
Their vessel Hebei Spirit, carrying crude oil, was hit by a Samsung-owned crane barge in December 2007 leading to an oil spill in the Yellow Sea.
Captain Chawla and Chief Officer Chetan were jailed in South Korea on charges of negligence and oil pollution. They had sailed through many a rough weather on the high seas, but nothing could have prepared them for this.
"I remember the first night. I was in a room smaller than a bathroom, it was stinking and I was freezing in -18 degrees centigrade," recalled Jaspreet Chawla, Freed Sailor.
What followed was months of mental trauma, humiliation and litigation.
A fight in a foreign land, in a foreign tongue with only hope to hold on to.
"Every time he would call, he would say everything was fine and that's when I knew it wasn't," said Gurpreet Kaur, Captain Chawla's wife.
"We missed out on so many things, we wanted to know when we could start leading our normal lives again," said Preetha, Chief Officer Chetan's wife.
It was only after persistent efforts of their families and shipping company that international pressure started mounting in their favour, finally leading to their release.
"Life is a slope, a highway up and down, you just deal with it and look for the better things in life," says Chief Officer Chetan Syam.
They know they've survived their toughest storm yet, but since the Korean court has still not exonerated them of all charges, they know the battle continues and once again they are determined to fight to the finish.