Te Voyage of Varuna


nary Islands and then across the Atlantic to New York. He also took part in the Paris to Dakar Road Rally. Sadly, Aebi’s mother suffered with cancer and died during the circumnavigation, but she was an ardent supporter of Tania’s trip. Remarkably, before departure, Aebi


Oddly enough, I don’t miss land very much anymore. On perfect days like today, I feel as though I could live autonomously on Varuna and happily sail the oceans of the world forever. —Tania Aebi


Yes, books are dangerous. Tey should be dangerous—they contain ideas. —Peter Hautman


Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. —E.P. Whipple


Books plant insidious seeds that may incubate for months or decades, but eventually bring something to life. My tattered paperback copy of Robin Lee Graham’s Dove was such a transforma- tive book. It planted a daring idea about someday sailing off to sea. Tat idea was given life later when I read Tania Aebi’s seminal (and equally dangerous) Maiden Voyage (Simon & Schuster 1989). In 1985, with just the company of a


cat, 18-year-old Tania Aebi set sail from New York City to circle the globe alone in a 26' Contessa sloop, Varuna. At the time, she was the first American woman and the youngest person ever to circum- navigate alone. Tania was a callow teen when she departed on her trip, but she returned a mature and capable woman, and in the eyes of her, fans she was a heroine. Laura Dekker, the Dutch teen who


circumnavigated 25 years aſter Aebi, was given a copy of Maiden Voyage for her 8th birthday. Tat is a dangerous book for little girls already in love with sailing. Dekker’s documentary is called Maid- enTrip, another nod to Tania Aebi who wrote the forward to Laura Dekker’s book One Girl, One Dream in 2013. Aebi was blessed-cursed with a


free-spirited father. In his youth, he hitchhiked from Switzerland to Japan. Later, he bought a boat in England, and with his family sailed it south to the Ca-


48


had never sailed alone. At her first an- chorage, she only let out 5' of anchor chain in 15' of water. Before departure, she was not accomplished at celestial navigation; she was no diesel mechanic, and yet she learned along the way and accomplished something extraordinary. Aebi says that the award for courage


should go to her Swiss immigrant father who had faith in her and who allowed her to undertake such an astonishing voyage of uncertainty with stops in 23 countries. Like any sailing enthusiast, I was


curious to know, what ever happened to Tania Aebi? What does she do now? Did she ever sail again. I reached out to her with many pesky questions, ques- tions she’s already answered hundreds of times, but she always graciously replied. After her voyage, Aebi went on the


TV talk-show celebrity circuit. Today, she is a motivational speaker and also leads adventure charters in exotic ports (taniaaebi.com) She has written a sec- ond book, I’ve Been Around (Sheridan House 2005) which is a compilation of essays written for a sailing magazine. Robin Lee Graham took nearly five


years on his circumnavigation, and Aebi took two years, pausing along the way to avoid hurricanes and to smell the nautical roses. More recently there has been a spate


of teenagers who have solo-circumnav- igated non-stop (or attempted): Zac and Abbey Sunderland, Jesse Martin, Michael Perham, David Dicks, Laura Dekker, and Jessica Watson. In some cases, they held the record for only a few weeks before it was bested by another ambitious teen. Ironically, when Tania Aebi’s son, at


age 22, was going to sail a boat to the Virgin Islands from New England in November, Aebi was so worried that she couldn’t sleep, eat, or breathe. Despite his having far more electronic aids to navigation than she ever did, Aebi called off his trip. Since her historic maiden voyage, Aebi has lived in rural Vermont, in a


Aebi says that the award for courage should go


to her Swiss immigrant father who had faith in her and who allowed her to undertake such


an astonishing voyage of uncertainty with stops in 23 countries.


house she, and her then-husband, Oliv- ier, built, the house where she reared two boys, Sam and Nicholas, both of whom have become marine systems engineers. Aebi jokes that she went from child-


care to elder care as she now provides for her aged father, the one who inspired her, encouraged her, and sometimes funded her to do something unimagin- ably hard, but something that has made all the difference. In 2007 and 2008, Aebi sailed her


boys to Tahiti to give them a taste of her teenage trip, to visit the place where she met their father. From there the boys sailed with their dad to New Caledonia. In 2007 and 2008, I nearly crossed


paths with Tania in Panama as I sailed with my own boys to distant Caribbean countries hoping to give them a broader worldview, hoping to instill a love for our watery planet, and hoping to incul- cate compassion for the less fortunate. My youngest son is now fixing up his


own little West Wight Potter for his first solo cruise as I attempt to teach him a bit about epoxy goop, carburetor needle valves, and the subtle art of brushing varnish. I first read Maiden Voyage soon aſter


it was published. I was in grad school, living in a damp cinderblock apartment that overlooked Lake Union in Seattle where between semesters, I cruised the San Juan islands in a battered Islander 26. Aebi’s amazing tome helped me dream of someday sailing beyond the breakwaters to the boundless blue sea. “I read a book one day and my whole


life was changed” (Orhan Pamuk). Tat little book was Maiden Voyage.


Paul Guajardo (pg@uh.edu) teaches liter- ature at the University of Houston.•SCA•


SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84