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. Concerned about her lack of ambition, her father offered her this 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 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.

She 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 mechanical breakdowns, the death of her mother, loneliness, doubt, and fear. In November 1987, just barely 21, Aebi stepped back onto the cement shores of New York City, a solo-circumnavigator.

She spent the 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 dramatic childhood leading up to it. "Maiden Voyage" 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.”

Ever since, Aebi has been living and participating in a small town rural life, where she raised two boys into young men. She also leads learn-to-sail flotillas in different countries around the world, delivers boats, writes a column for a popular sailing magazine, manages properties, and is working on another book.

Since her return, Aebi has been lecturing to different groups all around the country and overseas. To rapt audiences, she illustrates the story of her youthful adventure with an exotic slide show, and reflectively tells of how she once took on the biggest challenge she would ever face, triumphed, and how this experience has forever impacted her life. This is a genuinely recounted and inspirational story you won’t soon forget.