Sailing the Whole Enchilada-¡Qué Bárbara! – John

This book is the sequel to Sailing the Great Escape – ¡QuéBárbara! that I read back in July. It’s also my first foray into the Kindle book realm. While the price is obviously better, I still prefer the feel and presence of a real book. Really the only reason why I read this, my first Kindle format, was because it is the only version I could find for this book.

The book read pretty much the same as their first one did (surprise), and I quickly got through it.

While the first one recounted their shake-out cruise, this one was about their attempt to circle the Caribbean over 18 months.

There seemed to be an inordinate number of things go wrong on their boat. Almost hard to believe for such a new Lagoon 410. Maybe she was embellishing for effect, but there was always something breaking, allowing her miraculous husband to save the day. Even though I hoped this would lead to some useful explanation that I could learn from, it was always essentially just, “something broke and Bob fixed it” but over the course of a couple paragraphs. Either the previous (original) owners completely wrecked the boat, or Bob should have done some preventative maintenance to keep from saving the day so often.

While there was so much “Bob saving the day” going on, there seemed to be an equal amount of, “how depressing it was to be married to Bob and being stuck on this boat with him.” Again, hopefully just exaggeration for effect, but as she seemed to do nothing wrong expect for an occasion small mistake, he was frequently the most horrible man in the world. OK, now I’m exaggerating, but there seemed to be an inordinate amount of negative narrative about their relationship and interactions.

Maybe her editor and/or friends told her that some more drama in the story would attract a wider audience than those (like us) that really are only reading for the sailing bits. Between the drama of the constant break downs, and the fights between them, it read like a soap opera of sorts that just happened to be on a boat cruising the Caribbean. Perhaps that is what she was actually trying to achieve.

Overall I guess it’s not a bad book on its own merits, and I think a lot of people out there will actually like it. I was just hoping for a bit more stuff to learn from by reading about their travels.

There is a third book that will come out at some point. I’ll likely read that one too…

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