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18 Facts About Tania Aebi

1.

Tania Aebi was born on October 7,1966 and is an American sailor.

2.

Tania Aebi completed a solo circumnavigation of the globe in a 26-foot sailboat between the ages of 18 and 21, finishing it in 1987, making her the first American woman and the youngest person to sail around the world.

3.

Tania Aebi's record was not recognized by Guinness, because she sailed through the Panama Canal, which required assistance.

4.

Tania Aebi sailed eighty miles with a friend in the South Pacific.

5.

In 1984, when Tania Aebi was sixteen, just before finishing up with an alternative high-school a year early, her father bought a boat in the UK to sail it back across the Atlantic to New York City.

6.

Tania Aebi went with him and in a course of a year they sailed from the UK to Spain, Portugal, Morocco, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean, Bermuda and the whole group of Islands, heading back to New York City and arriving there in 1985.

7.

In May 1985, before the circumnavigation, Tania Aebi took a correspondence course in celestial navigation.

8.

Tania Aebi had practically no sailing or navigation experience when she departed on her journey, on May 28,1985.

9.

Tania Aebi did not have a GPS receiver because civilian GPS receivers were unavailable.

10.

Tania Aebi used the first leg of her trip from New Jersey to Bermuda as a sea trial of her boat.

11.

Tania Aebi set out on her circumnavigation in her $40,000 sloop, Varuna, on May 28,1985, her only other sailing experience being a six-month cruise of the Atlantic she had made with her father, her two sisters and her brother.

12.

In May 1985, with only few months of limited sailing experience, Tania Aebi sailed away from a New York City dock, bound for Bermuda in her small boat.

13.

Tania Aebi's journey was sponsored in part by Cruising World magazine, for which she had written articles.

14.

Tarzoon, the cat who traveled more than half the world around with Tania Aebi, survived for more than 20 years and died peacefully in its sleep just before she was to undertake a new voyage with her two teenage sons in 2008.

15.

Tania Aebi traded off with the boys' father, her ex-husband Olivier Berner, in Papeete, Tahiti.

16.

Tania Aebi's story is unusual because she was, by many standards, poorly prepared for her voyage.

17.

In 2005 Tania Aebi published her second book, I've Been Around.

18.

Tania Aebi writes monthly columns for several sailing and cruising magazines.