Coming up on Hold Fast.
So I went down, I knocked at the captain's door, he opens,
and quite shyly I ask him, please, can I have my passport back?
He makes me sign my sea time declaration,
and then we shake hands one last time, and then it's the goodbyes.
This is the extraordinary story of sailing cargo ship the Avantour and its crew of 15 on a wind-powered mission to transport olive oil,
cacao, coffee and rum between Europe and Central America.
But before they even make it halfway, everything they're counting on is thrown to the winds.
I'm Siobhan McSweeney and you're listening to Lives Less Ordinary Presents.
Hold fast.
From the BBC World Service.
Episode 8 Our duty is done.
It's the 23rd of July 2020, as the Avantour now makes its way through the North Sea.
Scotland is behind them as they pass close to the coast of Sweden and head onwards towards Germany,
the mouth of the River Elbe and Hamburg, their final destination.
Ships cook Julia Boccosi is sat on the deck of the ship, soaking up the last six months at sea.
The last sunset at sea was really... powerful.
I spent quite some hours on deck soaking all this light to make sure that these last moments would be really impressed into my mind and I was just comforting myself with the fact that the mouth of the river Elba were just a night of sleep away.
In a bunch of hours this bubble that has been Our home will expand so much that it's not going to be ours anymore.
Some people were thrilled to go back and some people were very upset about it.