Hold Fast! 5. No better mirror than the sea
Lives Less Ordinary
BBC
4.7 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The crew of the Avontuur begin to wonder whether they will ever be able to get off the ship. As they become resigned to their new life of being completely confined to the ship, things become increasingly surreal.
Narrated by Siobhán McSweeney Produced by Christina Hardinge Sound and music by Noémie Ducimetière Artwork by Joe Magee Narration written by Laura Thomas For Lives Less Ordinary, the series producer is Laura Thomas and the 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 liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up on Holdfast. |
| 0:03.0 | What if I really did get the bug? |
| 0:06.0 | What if I really do contaminate and pass it on to my crew? |
| 0:11.0 | What if because of me something terrible happens to everybody else? |
| 0:16.0 | And once again, an infinite, very scary list of what-ifs possessed me and they don't let me go. |
| 0:24.9 | This is the extraordinary story of sailing cargo ship, the Aventure, and its crew of 15, |
| 0:31.9 | on a wind-powered mission to transport olive oil, cacao, coffee and rum between Europe and Central America. |
| 0:39.7 | But before they even make it halfway, everything they're counting on is thrown to the winds. |
| 0:47.5 | I'm Chauvin McSweeney and you're listening to Lives Less Ordinary Presents. |
| 0:54.1 | Hold Fast |
| 0:54.9 | from the BBC World Service |
| 0:57.8 | Episode. |
| 1:00.8 | Episode 5 |
| 1:01.8 | No Better Mirror than the Sea |
| 1:04.5 | The Sea. |
| 1:31.0 | Thank you It's now the 12th of April 2020. |
| 1:38.3 | The Aventure is in the Caribbean Sea, sailing north along the coast of Belize in Central America and heading towards their next port of call in Mexico. |
| 1:43.0 | It's three months since the ship first set sail and around six weeks |
| 1:48.2 | since the crew last set foot on land, having been repeatedly denied shore leave on account of COVID |
| 1:54.2 | regulations. And no shore leave means no break from sailing, having to continuously work around the clock to keep the ship |
| 2:02.1 | on course. The captain decides the crew urgently need a break for their own safety and that of |
| 2:09.2 | the ship. So where better than the atolls that fringe the Belizean coastline, uninhabited desert |
... |
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