Hold Fast!: 1. Signs from the universe

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

15 people, 188 days at sea, one extraordinary ship: how the Avontuur was locked down at sea during the Covid-19 pandemic.

What would you do if your world shrunk to 300 square metres, and you had no say over who you shared it with? 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?

In this episode: When ship’s cook Giulia Baccosi accepts a last-minute job aboard sailing cargo ship The Avontuur, she’s looking for more than a job. She’s seeking adventure and community, too. She tells the captain that she’ll 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 fifteen. But before Giulia and the crew know it, everything they’re counting on will be thrown to the winds.

Narrated by Siobhán McSweeney Produced by Christina Hardinge Sound and music by Noémie Ducimetière Narration written by Laura Thomas

For Lives Less Ordinary, the series producer is Laura Thomas and editor, Munazza Khan.

Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.

Got a story to tell? Send an email to [email protected] or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What would you do if your world shrunk to 300 square meters and you had no say over who you shared it with?
0:09.6	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?
0:19.5	How would you cope?
0:22.2	In January 2020, the Aventure, a sailing cargo ship, set off from Germany, heading for the Caribbean.
0:30.3	On board, a crew of 15 with a mission to transport olive oil, cacao, coffee and rum across the Atlantic and back.
0:39.2	But before they even made it halfway, everything they counted on would be thrown to the winds.
0:47.6	I'm Chauvin McSweeney and you're listening to Lives Less Ordinary Presents.
0:54.9	Hold Fast from the BBC World Service
0:57.8	Over the next eight episodes
1:01.8	we'll be bringing you the story of 15 people
1:04.8	188 days at sea
1:07.4	and one extraordinary voyage
1:10.0	Episode 1 Signs from the Universe days at sea and one extraordinary voyage.
1:46.1	Episode 1, Signs from the Universe. We begin in a train station in Italy with a young woman called Julia Bikosi.
1:50.2	It's December 2019.
1:52.6	Julia is carrying her life's belongings on her back
1:55.4	and she's fresh from a nine-month voyage,
1:58.2	her first working as a ship's cook.
2:01.4	She doesn't feel like it's a job she chose, exactly.
2:05.8	Somehow it found her, but she's fallen in love with it.
2:11.1	On her left forearm is a tattoo of a Viking compass,
2:15.5	an old Icelandic design meant to help its bearer to find their way in rough weather.
	...

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.