In his light Mistral, from the time it left Barcelona in 1968 until it arrived at the port of Lequeitio in the summer of 1972, Julio Villar traveled some 38,000 nautical miles. It was a trip around the world lived without haste, savored, calm, sometimes dramatic. But the story of his adventures does not follow the usual course in this type of book. Although it unforgettably evokes his long sailing journeys and stopovers, Julio Villar’s purpose has been to capture the emotional course of his wanderings. Hey Petrel! oscillates between lyrical rambling and his brief logbook notes. Its paragraphs touch more than once the structure of a poem and there is in them amazement and fervor towards Walt Whitman, restless questions and feelings “of a simplicity and purity that only many, many years ago, when I was a child, I was capable of feel”. A travel story that is in itself the soul of the traveler.

This is a wonderful book, full of peace, sea, sea birds, flying fish, serene solitude, freedom and joy of life that is contagious when you are lucky enough to be able to immerse yourself in its pages full of the spontaneous and beautiful drawings that Julio made during the trip.

Julio Villar “¡Eh, petrel! : cuaderno de un navegante solitario”. First published in Spanish in 1974. This is 13th edition and released by Editorial Juventud in 2017. Donated by Angela Lago from Madrid ❤️

Photos by Anna Iltnere / Sea Libary