Maiden Voyage

I find gripping real-life adventures like this irresistible. Especially first-person accounts.

I hung on every word of Tanya’s story of her solo voyage around the world, some of it literally death-defying, especially while she was still mastering navigation and, later, traversing busy shipping zones populated by vessels much larger than hers.

It was reminiscent of another favourite, Robert Manry’s Tinkerbelle, a great sea-faring tale. Tania is so honest and transparent about her limitations and challenges. I enjoy reading about exploits I would never be brave enough to tackle myself.

Watching this teen-aged girl test her mettle while transforming herself into… show more.

I first read this memoir as a young teenager and was completely captivated by the idea of a girl not much older than myself simply raising a sail and setting off into the vast ocean. In 1985, Tania Aebi was eighteen and aimless, and her father gave her an ultimatum: either go to college or sail solo around the world. She chose the latter. Sailing is hard work, and Aebi has plenty of hard days, but her unusual coming-of-age story is romantic (sometimes literally) and exciting and opened my eyes to the possibilities of adventure and courage.

Tania Aebi was eighteen when she set sail on an around-the-world voyage in her twenty-six-foot sloop, Varuna. It took her two and a half years to complete the 27,000 mile voyage, but she returned to New York in 1987, becoming the youngest person and the first American woman to make a solo circumnavigation. She hit a tanker at one point. She found herself in a lightning storm. One of the things that most stays with me, though, is that she brought her cat, Tarzoon, with her. Aebi was even less prepared than Ann Davison for the challenge of the sea.… show more.