Solo woman sailor to speak at BCCC: An event for students, faculty, staff and friends

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. With only two years of limited sailing experience, she pulled away from a New York City dock, bound for Bermuda in her small boat. Cold and scared with tears streaming down her face, she waved good-bye to family and friends. She had never sailed a boat alone in her life until then. 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. Aebi, pronounced Abby, will share her experiences with BCCC alumni, students, faculty and staff in an appearance at 11 am, on Friday, Nov. 22 in the Multi-purpose Room of Building 10 on the BCCC campus. Her visit is sponsored by the Beaufort County Community College Foundation, the Student Government Association and support from PotashCorp-Aurora, Tayloe’s Hospital Pharmacy and Rod Cantrell, CFP. Aebi 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. Aebi did not have a global positioning system receiver, since the GPS system was not in operation then. Instead, she had a sextant for celestial navigation and a radio direction finder. And her boat, a $40,000 sloop Varuna, was plagued by factory defects that could easily have been corrected before departure. She met her husband, Olivier Berner, in Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, when he was also sailing solo. The two boats sailed in tandem and he was in New York when she returned home from her journey. They were married, have two sons and have since divorced. It was also in Vanuatu that she acquired Tarzoon the kitten, who was with her for over half the trip. In November 1987, at 21, Aebi returned to New York City, becoming, at the time, the first American woman and the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe. 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 has been translated into seven languages, and portions of it have been anthologized in many collections. Aebi now lives in rural Vermont, has earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and raised two boys who are now in college. She also leads learn-to-sail 10-day flotillas in different countries around the world, writes a column for a popular sailing magazine, and in 2005, published a second book, I’ve Been Around. Light refreshments will be served to attendees. For more information about Aebi’s appearance at BCCC, contact Judy Jennette, director of the BCCC Foundation, at 252-940-6326 or by email at judyj@beaufortccc.edu.