Tania Aebi

Tania Aebi

Tania Aebi was born on January 1st, 1966 and is currently 59 years old. Tania Aebi was born in New York City, New York, USA.

Tania Aebi completed a solo circumnavigation of the globe in a 26 foot sailboat between 18 and 21, finishing it up in 1987, making her the first American woman and the youngest person (at that time) to ever sail around the world.

But her record was not recognized by Guinness, since she sailed through the Panama Canal, which required some assistance. She also sailed 80 miles with her friend in the South Pacific. She still accomplished her goal, despite numerous challenges.

She learned all of the basics of sailing during a year long trip from England to New York City with her dad. They sailed to Spain, Morocco, Portugal, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean, Bermuda, and the entire group of Islands, returning back to New York City and arrived in 1985, doing so as novices.

Also before the circumnavigation, she took a correspondence course in celestial navigation.

Tania did not have a GPS receiver since civilian GPS receivers weren’t available. Instead, she used a radio direction finder and a sextant for celestial navigation. She used the first leg of her journey from New Jersey to Bermuda as a sea trial of her boat.

Maiden Voyage starts as the sheer desire for adventure before becoming a spiritual quest as a young woman comes to grips with her dreams, family, and her first love.

Tania was an unambitious 18 year old, a bicycle messenger in New York City during the day, and a Lower East Side barfly at night. She wasn’t going anywhere, until her dad offered up a challenge. She could either pick a college education or a 26 foot sloop. Only catch was that if she picked the sailboat, she would have to sail around the world, all by herself. She picked the boat, and for the following two and a half years and 27,000 miles, it was her home.

With just her cat as her companion, she found the wondrous beauties of the death-dealing horrors of the Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef. She suffered through this horrifying collision with a tanker out in the Mediterranean and this lightning storm just off the coast of Gibraltar.

And what started with the sheer desire for adventure became a spiritual quest while she came to terms with a troubled family life, fell in love for the first time, and confronted her own desires, needs, goals, and dreams.

I’ve Been Around tells Tania’s story about how when she was 18 she set out to sail all around the world alone in 1985. Tania instantly became famous with Maiden Voyage, her bestseller about this solo trip. In more than 20 years of cruising by herself and with her family, and leading 10 day flotillas to charter some destinations in a professional capacity, she has numerous anecdotes, opinions, observations, advice, and cautionary tales. She’s been around, indeed.

She was hired by Latitudes and Attitudes, a fledgling sailing magazine, in 1997 as a columnist.

There is something for the armchair sailor that dreams about sailing off one day, and the sailor in the cockpit that actively chases these horizons.

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