In a previous post, I wrote about my general views on the

book, Maiden Voyage, by Tania Aebi. In this post, I will be discussing

some details about the book that you may not want to read if you plan
on reading this book. If you do not plan on reading the book or if you
do not mind being spoiled, then continue reading this blog post!

In my book review, I wrote about how I did not like how Tania’s book
shifted from an adventure story to a romance story. I would have
preferred the last words of her book to be about her epic
accomplishment rather than her expressing her love to her boyfriend.
The last words of the book (if you do not count the epilogue) are, “I
blong you,” which is their way of saying “I love you” to each other. She
just accomplished an epic feat to be the first American woman, as well
as the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone! And her
last words are “I blong you”?! It let me down. I would have preferred
that she summarized her accomplishment and what it meant to her.
After finishing the book, I looked her up on the Internet to see what
else she has done in her life since finishing this feat. She did end up
marrying her boyfriend, they had two sons, but then they divorced, so
it did not turn out to be a happy ending, unfortunately.

I also found out that she was not granted the official record of being the
first American woman and youngest person ever to sail around the
world alone by Guinness World Records. This is because she sailed
through the Panama Canal; in order to go through this canal, you had
to have at least a certain number of people on board to help sail
through due to the canal’s regulations. She was able to find some
sailors to help her, but because she did not sail alone through this
stretch, Guinness wasn’t able to give her the world record.

In addition, Guinness found out that she had sailed about 80 miles
with a friend when she was in the South Pacific. According to the
Internet, “the equatorial circumference of Earth is about 24,901 miles.”
The length of the Panama Canal is 51 miles. 51 plus 80 equals 131. She
technically did not sail alone for 131 miles but sailed the rest of the
approximately 24,770 miles by herself. She sailed 0.50% of the world
with others on board. I would have still given her the record! I do
understand the reasoning behind not giving her the record because of
having her friend on board for 80 miles, but I don’t understand the
reasoning behind not recognizing her record because of the Panama
Canal. I guess Guinness wants sailors to go around the southern tip of
South America instead of using the Panama Canal. In my eyes, Tania
set the record!

Overall, I still really enjoyed reading this book, and I encourage others
to read it too!