I read this book for the first time in my early 20s. It made an impression to the demonstrable extent that it is still among my favorites.
As a troubled teen in New York City, Tania has few positive prospects for her future. She dropped out of high school. She stays out too late partying and as yet, does not have the moral fortitude to respect herself enough to take any honorable risks.
In a supreme act of faith and parental sacrifice, her father offers 17-year-old Tania a choice that will save her life. Tania can accept either a college education or a sailboat. The caveat being that the boat must solo circumnavigate the globe.
“Maiden Voyage” is the story of her choice.
With a vaguely,” What the hell” attitude and a visceral dislike of educational entrapment, Tania chooses the boat.
She sails almost 30,000 miles in about two and a half years. She is scared. She is alone. She is a novice sailor. Many condemned her parents for risking her life. No one thought she would succeed. Least of all Tania.
In two years of itinerant exile, she does succeed. Predictably, why else write the book, she grows, and learns, and finds herself. She comes back stronger and more prescient with a wisdom unattainable simply by expostulating College.
Beyond the obvious, what I really find tantalizing about “Maiden Voyage” is the choice.
Few among us are presented with such an unambiguous choice at that tender age. (Ironic or possibly Darwinian that no one that age knows they are tender)
Like The Odyssey/ Iliad or The Lady and The Tiger – Tania has an inordinately literal choice laying at her feet. Will she capitulate to societal expectations and go to college, or will she splinter off to follow her private destiny?
Hamlet’s queries once again ring true. To be (a follower) or not to be? Is it nobler to suffer (in a sepulchral life that doesn’t fit her) slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles (pursue her individual happiness) and by opposing end them? Who truly has the nerve to do that?*
This is why I love the book. We should all have a little more nerve. At some point, everyone should take the boat and go it alone. Let’s see what we are really capable of. What monsters internal and external can be defeated? It is not nobler to suffer if you have an alternative.
I chose college, but wish I had been offered the boat.
* I am certainly not praising selfish, crazed, Unabomber-type, introspective shenanigans, merely suggesting that a self-aware, fulfilled member of society is a positive influence on society.