Sedgwick charter captain featured on Travel Channel TV show

Throughout the summer months, Captain Pete Douvarjo takes all kinds of clients out on his 21-foot Parker, named “Reel Life.”

Captain Pete Douvarjo of Eggemoggin Guide Service scans the horizon for sharks as a windjammer sails past near Mount Desert Rock on Tuesday, July 31, 2012. BDN photo by John Holyoke

Captain Pete Douvarjo of Eggemoggin Guide Service scans the horizon for sharks as a windjammer sails past near Mount Desert Rock on Tuesday, July 31, 2012. BDN photo by John Holyoke

Sometimes he welcomes families aboard, and the registered Maine guide helps them learn to fish for pollack and mackerel. Other times, later in the season, he takes adventurous anglers farther from shore and targets sharks.

Late last October, Douvarjo, owner of Eggemoggin Guide Service, hosted a film crew aboard. On Wednesday, he’ll finally get to see the results of that trip when episode 111 of “Follow Your Past” airs on the Travel Channel at 9 a.m.

According to a description on the Travel Channel website, “‘Follow Your Past’ is a series that follows average Americans on a journey to breathtaking locations as they uncover their very personal connection to history’s most extraordinary events. Each episode, host and author Alison Stewart takes individuals around the world from one incredible location to another, giving each person a chance to literally walk in their ancestors’ footsteps. Each step of the way, they learn important clues about their family’s contribution to world history. By journey’s end, their famous ancestor is revealed, and the historical impact of that person’s life will come into clear and striking focus.”

“This episode is “A Family of Explorers,” Douvarjo said. “What they’ve done is found some relatives of [a famous explorer], and they retrace his exploration, wherever he was. He was in France and Maine and Canada. So it turns out I’m probably only going to have five minutes [on the show].”

Douvarjo did reveal the name of the explorer, but viewers will likely want to play along and try to figure out the identity during the show.

The ancestor featured on the show doesn’t get to play the role of a swashbuckling explorer, however. Instead, the producers let him play the role his relative played earlier in an illustrious career.

“At one point in [the explorer’s] life, he was a cabin boy,” Douvarjo said. “So he was the cabin boy.”

Douvarjo served as the captain, and fashioned a hand line for fishing, then took the “cabin boy” to an island, where they built a fire and cooked fish.

And he also got some other work out of the “cabin boy.”

“[At one point] the hostess said, ‘He’s the cabin boy. What else would he do?'” Douvarjo said. “I said, ‘Clean the boat.’ I gave him a rag and he started washing the boat down.”

Douvarjo also enlisted the help of fellow captain Bill Sweetland of Downeast Custom Cruises, who ran the “chase” boat that held other film crew members.

Douvarjo said he enjoyed the experience, but said if he agreed to a similar trip in the future, he’d change a few things. Working with a film crew was tough, he said, and the group ended up returning from the island much later than he’d hoped.

“I would do it again. It would just have to be a lot more money,” he said with a laugh. “And they’d have to pay attention when I say it’s time to go.”

Douvarjo said he’ll start regular trips in late May, and hopes appearing on the show gives his business a bit of publicity.

“June has been getting better every year. When I started out, I’d do one or two [trips] in June. Then I’d do five or six. Last year I did a dozen in June,” Douvarjo said. “I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of people will be watching [the show], but if one or two call, it’s worth it to do. It’s an experience.”

 

 

 

John Holyoke

About John Holyoke

John Holyoke has been enjoying himself in Maine's great outdoors since he was a kid. Today, he's the Outdoors editor for the BDN, a job that allows him to meet up with Maine outdoors enthusiasts in their natural habitat. The stories he gathers provide fodder for his columns, and this blog.