| Vol 2 - Issue 8 | July/August 1998 |
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On The Bookshelf by Barbara Seideneck Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi |
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Just imagine yourself on a cold October night after 37 days at sea
alone, the Atlantic Ocean " a mountain of heaving swells", waves 25 feet high, the boat suffering numerous knockdowns and you are 880 miles from home.
| This describes the beginning of Tania Aebi’s book, Maiden Voyage. A fascinating trip dared by the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe. |
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When the 18 year old bicycle messenger is given the choice between going to college or sailing around the world singlehandedly, she chooses the 27.000 mile journey with her pet cat as her only companion. With minimal sailing experience on her father’s boat a couple of years prior to her heroic trip, she survives at sea. During this remarkable experience she learns how to operate and repair her 26 foot sloop "Varuna", how to navigate with a sextant, entertain herself and endure physical hardship and her fears. This book is a breathtaking account of a gorgeous and ferocious journey. It is a beautifully written, detailed encounter of the inner processes of a sensitive and outstanding writer experiencing the power of the elements in long periods of isolation. At the same time the book opens the readers eyes to many exotic places where sailors of the world meet, share their adventures and have fun. Leaving New York after a NBC "Today" show, Tania takes off on a two and a half year sail. With each landfall the reader gets detailed insights to the landscape, the harbors, procedures of entry, the beauty of different cultures and preparations for another leg of the journey. I often caught myself looking forward to the next stop on the route, curious to find out about another place, described in colorful images as exotic as they can get. After visiting Bermuda, St. Thomas, passing through the Panama Canal and stopping at Galapagos, the author crosses 3000 miles in a month before reaching the Marquesa Islands. " Nowhere but in the minuscule ‘Varuna’, in the middle of an ocean, could the enormity of planet Earth make me feel so privileged yet so completely like a speck of nothingness." The South Pacific Ocean and it’s islands of Tahiti, Moorea, Samoas, Wallis and Fortuna seem to be the highlight of the journey and in Vanuavatu romance comes into the picture. The journey continues to Australia, Thursday Island and Bali, crossing the Indian Ocean and its Doldrums. After Christmas Island and Sri Lanka, two days of motoring through 120 miles of Suez Canal "burnt out spoils of the six day war ....littering the banks", Tania gets to stop in Malta and Gibraltar. Then finally across a frightening, cold North Atlantic Ocean, she comes home to New York. I feel that this book can be very entertaining to anyone liking adventure at sea. Charts with basic technical sailboat terms help the non- experienced sailor to understand the workings of the boat. Details about weather, route, speed, navigation and technical difficulties may be very interesting to the "pros". The book is interspersed with quotes from the logbook which put you right on board, and a map gives a nice geographical overview of the trip. And last but not least, as a freedom loving woman and beginning catamaran sailor, I find this book awesome. Anybody want to sail to Tahiti? Recommendation: Buy a few of these, you will want to give them to your friends, if they haven’t read it yet. Barbara Seideneck bseideneck@aol.com Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi, published by Ballantine Books, New York, Copyright 1989, Paperback, Price: $10.00. Available in any major bookstore. Back to Features |