Tania Aebi

In May 1985, when Tania Aebi was only 18 years old, she cast off from the docks of South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan, and sailed 27,000 miles around the world, alone on a twenty-six foot sloop. Concerned about her lack of ambition, her father had offered her this dramatic opportunity as an alternative to a college education, and she took him up on it. For the next two and a half years, with only a cat for company, she and her boat, VARUNA, crossed the Caribbean, the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the North Atlantic, stopping in 23 countries along the way. Tania Aebi sailed through storms and calms, gathering stories, friendships, inspirational examples, and maturity along the way. She also learned a lot about setting a larger-than-life goal and being committed to following it through despite the hardships of weather, mechanical breakdowns, the death of her mother, loneliness, doubt, and fear.

In November 1987, just barely 21, Tania Aebi stepped back onto the cement shores of New York City, a solo-circumnavigator. She spent one year after her return reliving the trip in words, writing her bestselling book, MAIDEN VOYAGE, the personal account of a modern day odyssey and the childhood turbulence that led up to the undertaking.

The book is currently in its eleventh trade paperback printing, it has been translated into seven languages, and portions of it have been anthologized in many collections. As Walter Cronkite put it, MAIDEN VOYAGE is "an exciting tale of an extraordinarily brave and romantic adventure."

Tania Aebi now lives and participates in a small town rural life in New England, where she has been a mother of two boys between going back to traditional school and earning her BA and MFA. She also earned her captain's license and leads learn-to-sail 10-day flotillas in different countries around the world, writes a column for a popular sailing magazine, and is currently working on another book. A natural storyteller, since her return, Tania Aebi has been lecturing to different groups all around the country and overseas. To rapt audiences, she richly details her youthful adventure, supplemented by an exotic slide show of pictures taken underway. With humor and honest reflection, she tells of how she once took on the biggest challenge she would ever face, triumphed, and in what ways this experience has forever impacted her life. This is a genuine and inspirational story you won't soon forget.