Thank you to the author for the review copy!
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The Book: Barefoot, windswept, sun-kissed: Sailing around the world on Obiwan by Rafaella Marozzini
The rating:
5/5
The book in three phrases:
Wanderlust inducing
Inspiring
Jealousy-causing (in a good way)
Format read:
Physical
Genre:
Sailing adventure memoir
Content warnings
- Wanderlust inducing
The Synopsis (from memory)
In 2015, Rafaella, Giovanni, and Obiwan (their sailboat) sail together almost all the way around the world and take us along for the ride. We follow them from Greece, across the Atlantic to Colombia, through the Caribbean and the Panama Canal, to the Galapagos, all over French Polynesia, and finally to Australia.
The Review (TLDR)
(My previous review): I really enjoyed this. The first little bit took me a while to get into but I’m realizing that’s just because I don’t have as much interest in the Europe/Atlantic portions of sailing books. There was nothing wrong with it, it just wasn’t my favorite part. But once we got to Panama, I was hooked and didn’t want to put it down.
I loved that we got to read about the Galapagos because I never seem to see that in sailing books and I loved everything about the South Pacific even more. It really felt like I was there and had me wishing I actually was.
It’s an easy read that flies by and will having you trying to figure out how to get your own sailboat. I’m very glad I got to read this one!
The Good
Laid back. I love that this is an easy sailing book, and by that I mean it’s purely fun and has little to no hiccups along the way. There’s no drama, there’s no sinking boats, you get the idea. I don’t know if low stakes is the right phrase but it feels close enough.
The Galapagos. I feel like we never get to go to the Galapagos in sailing around the world books, but in this one, we do! It’s not a huge section of the book or anything, but I’m glad we got to see that because I love the Galapagos.
The South Pacific. My absolute favorite section was the whole French Polynesia/South Pacific region. I love love love the South Pacific (even though I haven’t been there yet) and in any sailing book, I know that will be my favorite part. And even better, in this one we get pictures of it which are just perfection. If there is any reason to read this book, this should be it.
An easy read. This is a nice, easy read which is great if you just want to feel like you’re somewhere else for a while.
It’s inspiring. I feel like a lot of the sailing books I’ve read are from pretty young people (like, the youngest to sail around the world alone), I would say generally under 30ish? But they went when they were a little older (I’m not sure their exact age, but everything in it made me think they were over 30) and I love that because it just shows that it’s never too late to follow your dreams!
The Bad
Some typos. There were some typos and odd phrasings in here but it didn’t bother me in this case because English isn’t her first language and it was self-published. It wasn’t littered with them, but there are a few. It’s not as egregious to me in this case as it is for something traditionally published.
The Atlantic portion was slow for me. This is just because of personal interest, but the Atlantic (and before) sections of this were just fine for me. I just don’t have as much interest in that area as I do the Caribbean and South Pacific, especially. I still enjoyed it but I liked the other parts much more.
Should you read Barefoot, windswept, sun-kissed, too?
Yes! Especially if you love sailing, travel, adventure type memoirs. I’ve never been sailing but I genuinely want to go now. I’ve read a few sailing books (this one most recently) and one of my life goals has become to sail around the South Pacific, specifically. Somehow.
Buy Barefoot, windswept, sun-kissed here.
Have you read Barefoot, windswept, sun-kissed? What did you think of it? Would you recommend it? I want to hear your thoughts!
