American Notes SAILING

Although she thought she might want to be a writer, 18-year-old Tania Aebi was plying Manhattan's canyons as a bicycle messenger. Sensing that his daughter was adrift, Ernst Aebi presented her with an unusual choice: college tuition or a small boat she could sail around the world.

Though she was only a novice sailor, Aebi took the boat. Last week she triumphantly returned to New York harbor, completing a 29-month, 27,000-mile circumnavigation. Aebi unwittingly jeopardized her chance to be the youngest person ever to make the trip alone when she gave a friend a ride from Pago Pago to Western Samoa, a distance of only 75 miles. Still, setting records was not the point. Said her father, as the champagne flowed: "She's become a very accomplished person."