HOLD FAST!
BBC WORLD SERVICE / Lives Less Ordinary
8 PART PODCAST SERIES
PRODUCER
Link to episodes here.
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Selected as The Guardian and The Observer’s Podcast ‘Pick of the Week’.
BBC Article interviewing the series narrator Siobhán McSweeney about Hold Fast!
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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 - with no option of setting foot on land again, or going home?
Hold Fast! is the extraordinary true story of a sailing cargo ship and its 15 person crew locked out at sea for 188 days during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Using real-life audio recordings from the ship combined with stunning music score and immersive sound, listeners are invited to step on board and join the ride as ship’s cook Giulia Baccossi recounts an epic 6 months that no sailor could have ever seen coming.
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In January 2020, a 100-year-old sailing cargo ship called The Avontuur left Germany heading for the Caribbean, on a mission to transport olive oil, coffee and rum. On board were a young international crew, strangers to each other. Among them was ship’s cook Giulia Baccosi, who joined somewhat by chance, and who is the listener’s key companion on this voyage.
But before the ship even made it across the Atlantic, the crew received a message: “The world as you know it no longer exists.” The Covid pandemic had locked down countries all over the world and no one could say when the crew would be allowed to return to land.
What happened next is a remarkable story of both isolation and unexpected human connection. The crew went on to spend 188 days on the ship without setting foot on land – 15 people, 188 days, sharing 300 metres square of a ship.
We’re with the crew as they experience dwindling food supplies, epic feats of nature and weather (such as the ‘Calima’ wind that turns the whole sky and sea red), attempts to contact loved ones, find creative ways to keep spirits up, manage complex feelings for each other, tensions rising, new romances, sails ripping, and a dangerous storm that takes them so off course that they end up off the coast of Canada. It’s an awe-inspiring voyage that pushes the crew to the absolute limits of what they ever thought they were capable of – all within the confines of a 40m-long, century-old schooner built for a different time.
Beautifully-crafted immersive sound design, created by composer Noémie Ducimetière and producer Christina Hardinge working in close collaboration, brings to life the audio experience of being aboard a sailing ship at sea. To do so, Giulia Baccosi gathered original field recordings for the series, allowing unique access to the full sound world of a crew’s life on board; from group dinners in the galley, to playing silly games on deck, and battening down the hatches during a storm. These sounds are elevated into an original score by Noémie, with gorgeous wind instruments and harmonised vocals that give the listener a sense of both the confinement of the ship and the vastness of the ocean.
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Credits:
Narrated by Siobhán McSweeney
Produced by Christina Hardinge
Sound & music by Noémie Ducimetière
Narration written by Laura Thomas
Artwork by Joe Magee
For Lives Less Ordinary, the series producer is Laura Thomas and editor, Munazza Khan.
