Bonus: Lives Less Ordinary presents, Hold Fast!

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The incredible true story of how The Avontuur was locked down at sea for 188 days during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 15 people on board. The journey begins for ship’s cook Giulia Baccosi when she accepts a last-minute job aboard the sailing cargo ship The Avontuur. She tells the captain that she will stay with the ship until it reaches Mexico, in about three months’ time. After saying goodbye to her partner, Giulia settles into life on board and the responsibilities of feeding the Avontuur’s crew of 15. But before Giulia and the crew know it, everything they’re counting on will be thrown to the winds. This extraordinary story, narrated by Siobhán McSweeney, is from the Lives Less Ordinary podcast, from the BBC World Service.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Asi Fuchs, and welcome to this bonus episode in the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:06.8	I host the BBC's Lives Less Ordinary podcast, Extraordinary Stories from Around the World.
0:12.5	To hear every episode, search for Lives Less Ordinary, wherever you find your BBC podcasts.
0:19.7	What would you do if your world shrunk to 300 square meters and you had no say over who you shared it with?
0:27.9	If you were on a ship, at sea, far from loved ones, and didn't know when you'd be able to set foot on land again and get home.
0:37.8	How would you cope?
0:40.5	In January 2020, the Aventure, a sailing cargo ship, set off from Germany, heading for the Caribbean.
0:48.6	On board, a crew of 15, with a mission to transport olive oil, cacao, coffee and rum across the Atlantic
0:56.5	and back. But, before they even made it halfway, everything they counted on would be thrown to the
1:03.4	winds. I'm Chauvinne Maxvini, and you're listening to Lives Less Ordinary Presents.
1:16.1	Hold Fast from the BBC World Service.
1:23.1	Over the next eight episodes, we'll be bringing you the story of 15 people,
1:28.3	188 days at sea and one extraordinary voyage.
1:33.1	Episode 1, Signs from the Universe Music We begin in a train station in Italy
2:04.4	with a young woman called Julia Bikosi.
2:08.5	It's December 2019.
2:10.9	Julia is carrying her life's belongings on her back
2:13.7	and she's fresh from a nine-month voyage,
2:16.5	her first working as a ship's cook.
2:19.8	She doesn't feel like it's a job she chose, exactly.
2:24.1	Somehow it found her, but she's fallen in love with it.
2:29.4	On her left forearm is a tattoo of a Viking compass, an old Icelandic design meant to help its bearer
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.