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?
How would you cope?
In January 2020, the Avantour, a sailing cargo ship,
set off from Germany, heading for the Caribbean.
On board, a crew of 15 with a mission to transport olive oil,
cacao, coffee and rum across the Atlantic and back.
But before they even made it halfway, everything they counted on would be thrown to the winds.
I'm Siobhan McSweeney and you're listening to Lives Less Ordinary Presents Hold Fast from the BBC World Service.
Over the next eight episodes, we'll be bringing you the story of 15 people,
188 days at sea, and one extraordinary voyage.
Episode 1 Signs from the Universe We begin in a train station in Italy with a young woman called Giulia Boccosi.
It's December 2019.
Giulia is carrying her life's belongings on her back and she's fresh from a nine-month voyage,
her first working as a ship's cook.
She doesn't feel like it's a job she chose, exactly.
Somehow it found her.
But she's fallen in love with it.