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Todd Bartoo

Scott Dodgson

Experience the world through the sailor's eyes. We travel around the world discovering the invaluable insights that made us who we are, sharing art, food, history and culture. We tell stories about life from the sailor's point of view! Sailing adventures, traveling stories across the oceans. An informative and entertaining podcast.

Offshore Explorer with Scott Dodgson

I sailed into Marmaris, Turkey in late spring. Marmaris Bay is nearly enclosed by land. When you reach the mouth of the bay you smell the rich loamy soil of Asia. There is a modern marina and boatyard near the old market of Marmaris. Big hotels dot the shoreline. They added an airport several years ago which has spurred tourism and development. Once you walk off the beaten path, you are back in rural Turkey. 

I was directed to a slip by my old friend Omar. Omar was a big burly man with a sweet disposition. We met ten years before, and he has been my agent in Turkey for all those years. 

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Books and stories by Scott Dodgson 

Buy on Amazon 

Mosaic Artist https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KQ6R34R

The Casket Salesman https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NHN1FHT

Paulette Mc Williams music https://music.apple.com/us/album/a-womans-story/1522026059Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

A Passing Conversation

I was visiting with my friend Tommy on his Downeaster 32 cutter rigged sloop. Tommy is a live aboard. We joke all the time about why he hasn’t left for Hawaii. Unlike a lot of live-aboards who use the boat as a cheap version of an apartment, Tommy is a real sailor. I’ve known him for ten years and during that time he has taken a small sailboat from Los Angeles to Houston, Texas through the Panama Canal. He made several trips from LA to San Francisco and back. There were several month-long trips to Mexico and San Diego. Tommy is not the retired corporate guy with max social security, a pension, and savings. Tommy is an artist. His entire life has been about art. He has the character of early twentieth-century artist living in the French garret, living and breathing his full life into his being and kindness of spirit. Tommy is a musician, a busker. Boat builder, furniture builder, guitar builder, stain glass artist, voiceover artist and raconteur. I’m sure he has more skills, but I haven’t discovered them yet! 

Be sure to subscribe, rate and review!

Books and stories by Scott Dodgson 

Buy on Amazon 

Mosaic Artist https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KQ6R34R

The Casket Salesman https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NHN1FHT

Buy today!

 Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

For more episodes check out Offshoreexplorer.org Offshoreexplorer.org

Why Haven't You Left?

Kapoor’s story was like a lot of others who end up working and living in the world of yachts. 

Kapoor was born in India. He snuck aboard a freighter in Chennai bound for France. His uncle, a crewman, let him stay in his cabin during the voyage. Kapoor was a stowaway. After arriving in France, he wandered up and down the coast looking for work. A yacht captain gave him a job as a day worker washing his boat. All along the coast, workers, backpackers, out of work crew, do day work on the yachts. Generally, the crew has many other more important things to do and having an extra couple of hands helps keep the yacht Bristol. It wasn’t long before he learned all the skills needed to become a good day worker. Varnishing became his business. Varnishing is one of those skills that almost anyone can do, but to do it exceptionally well, that is rare. He was an expert varnisher. He had built up a fine reputation among the yacht captains. I, as a yacht captain and a pretty experienced varnisher myself can attest, Kapoor was nothing less than magical with a varnish brush in his hand. 

I had hired him several times of the course of years to varnish my boats. I liked him. He was stuck in Sardinia after his flight was cancelled because of technical troubles with the plane. He traveled there on a yacht finishing a big varnish job on a new 30-meter sailboat. The captain gave him a ticket and shoved off to Greece. I offered to give him a lift. 

Be sure to subscribe, rate and review!

Books and stories by Scott Dodgson 

Buy on Amazon 

Mosaic Artist https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KQ6R34R

The Casket Salesman https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NHN1FHT

Buy today!

 Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

For more episodes check out Offshoreexplorer.org Offshoreexplorer.org Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

Love And Saffron Rice

How does one get to where they are? It is rarely a straight line. Sometimes it’s just luck. Graduate high school, go to college, meet your sweetheart, get married, get a job, have kids, and retire then go sailing. I had plenty of deviations to my course. It went something like this graduate high school, attend college, get drafted, spend three years in Vietnam, went back to college, graduated, taught college, married, divorced, wrote movies and plays, went sailing. Prior to going sailing, I worked on Ore boats, owned a 21ft sloop, raced International 14’s worldwide. 

Be sure to subscribe, rate and review!

Books and stories by Scott Dodgson 

Buy on Amazon 

Mosaic Artist https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KQ6R34R

The Casket Salesman https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NHN1FHT

Buy today!

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

Offshoreexplorer.org

Kona Kai Marina

Jack London: The Cruise Of The Snark

Hinckley Yachts

Feretti Yachts

Passport Yachts

My First Captain's Gig

Here is a simple exercise in relationships between the physical past and the physical present. How much can you physically carry in your arms? 

Where you are going? What is the reason you are carrying your maximum load? How far do you need to go? 

Most of us experience this “personal load” carrying groceries or running through the airport dragging suitcases. No matter what it is we are carrying it’s not fun. It wasn’t fun three thousand years ago either. Remarkably the physical struggle has been creative and enterprising. Ships play an important part in the evolution of how much you can carry. They still carry more than any other transportation vehicle invented. 

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Link to blogpost: https://offshoreexplorer.blogspot.com/2019/09/how-much-can-you-carry.html

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/offshoreexplorer

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Offshoreexplorer

How Much Can You Carry?

Marilyn Monroe, dead bodies, and pickles, what do they have in common? A 12 year old Scott spends a summer with his grandfather, The Casket Salesman. 

He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1922. He was a coal miner's son. He lost his parents early in his life to yellow fever. He was raised by a step-aunt. We called her Grandma Nichols. I remember her as mean, crotchety, and having a bad, but hilarious habit of letting her teeth fall out of her mouth into her lap while she talked. She spread darkness and fear everywhere she went. Uncle Willard worked in the mine as a 12-year-old. He bought a yellow and beige convertible Buick when he was 16 years old. 

Later, he drove coal trucks from Scranton to New York City. He gave a lift to Marylin Monroe once before she was famous. He told me he always had the gift for storytelling, but he really got good after he was shot down over Germany during WWII and spent three years a prisoner in a German Stalag.

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Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

Link to blogpost: https://offshoreexplorer.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-casket-salesman.html

The Casket Salesman

Let me be clear, people who yell at me on a boat will be thrown overboard and allowed to swim home. If they can’t swim, then they should drown with a proper sense of decorum and shame! There is no room on any vessel for yelling! 

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Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

Blog Post: https://offshoreexplorer.blogspot.com/2020/03/dont-yell-at-me.html

Antigua: https://visitantiguabarbuda.com/

Sailing Week: https://www.sailingweek.com/event/guadaloupe-to-antigua-race/

Rhodes: http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/greek_islands/rhodes

Falmouth Harbor: http://antigua-marina.com/

Don't Yell At Me!

For me not to mention the virus racing through humanity causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and untold economic and emotional misery would be shortsighted and unfair to the reader. I have known many tragedies in my lifetime, some personal and some public. Those tragedies have burnished an impression on my soul far deeper than normal. We as a modern people have lived with far less tragedy than our parents or forefathers. I am recalling a story that my grandmother told me about her parents.

Be sure to subscribe, rate and review!

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

Blog Post: https://offshoreexplorer.blogspot.com/2020/04/write-your-own-story.html

Antigua: https://visitantiguabarbuda.com

Monserrat: https://www.montserratvisita.com/en/index.html

Four Seasons Nevis: https://www.fourseasons.com/nevis/

Saba: https://www.sabatourism.com

St. Martin: http://www.stmartinisland.org

Write Your Own Story

Tommy “Twang” Ivicevich is my friend. Saying that really means something. He is beloved by all, even the ex-wife. Tommy’s spirit is best described as the boy who rode his bike down the biggest hill into cross traffic and nothing happened. He’s the cool dude who played in “that” band we all went to see. He is an ocean spirit who dove for Abalone and to not waste the shells he built electric guitars, at least that is the myth. He’s a builder and a maker of stained glass windows, of houses, and of a Wright brothers' replica plane that hangs in a museum in Israel. He’s a busker with a sweet sound and fun entertainer. Above all he is a very fine sailor and lover of vessels of all kinds. Tommy is special and that’s not because he has two “Vs” in his last name. 

Be sure to subscribe, rate and review!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scintillians

Blog: https://offshoreexplorer.blogspot.com/

Links:

https://www.pancanal.com/eng/

http://downeasteryachts.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpfRi8UGZVk

https://www.igymarinas.com/marinas/marina-cabo-san-lucas

http://www.lamarinaacapulco.com/en/

http://marinapuestadelsol.com

http://www.bananabaymarinagolfito.com

http://www.apiqroo.com.mx

Tommy Twang!

Consider this mental experiment for a moment. When you stand outside in your own town, histories, incidents, observations, all rush through your mind creating a feeling of nostalgia, romance, anger, indifference, or maybe sadness. Combined with the familiarity of the place you have a pretty good idea what your place is about and how you fit in it. Offshore Explorer gives you a primer about ports and the people so you will have a deeper understanding of their place.

When you travel and see places for the first time. The effect is they jar your perceptions and shape your observations, creating a kind of clarity. Experiencing places also can reinforce your ideas and personal philosophies. If you are looking for something in yourself, the journey will help you discover it.

Be sure to subscribe, rate and review!

Blog post: https://offshoreexplorer.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-importance-of-place-fresh.html

LINKS: 

Symi Travel Guide: https://www.greeka.com/dodecanese/simi/

Yacht Charter in Symi: https://mygreekcharter.com/greece-island/symi/

Roditis Shipping and Yachting Service: https://rya.gr/

Yacht Service in Greece: hhttps://www.yachtagent.gr/

Raid on Symi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Symi

Write Your Own Story

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