Ocean World...and All That That Entails

Imagine a lovely oceanfront cottage, swallows and kingbirds swooping overhead, and "Who Let the Dogs Out?" playing very very loudly about 100 metres away. That's for the sealions. For the porpoises it's "Surfin' USA". The macaws get "March of the Toreadors". All very loud and clear for the occupants of Django. The lights of the huge sign atop the casino replace those myriad stars we had to put up with in mid-ocean. Really, who could ask for more?

As a marina, it's very nice. Mind you, any place with a functional hot shower and a toilet that flushes is very nice to my tiny mind. On our first day, we were docked as far away as humanly possible from all the amenities...about a five minute walk in the 35C+ heat. However, the Ocean World Marina personnel are more than happy to leap into a golf cart and take you to and from laundry, showers, Internet, etc.

Django at Ocean World, DR

I had a load of laundry to do but the machines wouldn't be free for half an hour, so I decided to explore. I climbed some stairs, turned left, and found a little gateway into a cafeteria. I wandered through that and into the shopping area, thence to the snorkelling reef. Which is pretty cool for kids. It's a huge aquarium about 10 feet deep at it's deepest, with coral and reef fish swimming about...and kids. Next to that is the aviary where you go through two sets of doors and can have a toucan walk up and down your arm. There are tigers which I didn't see. The dolphins were doing laps in a large enclosure. The sealions were in a pool about three times their body length long, but quite deep. They were noodling around in the most spectacularly sinuous fashion. By the time I'd pottered about the place, the washers were free. It was only the next day that I learned entrance to the Adventure Park is $35 per person. I'd innocently found a back door.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

After we docked, we arranged for a mechanic to visit and WW went off to arrange our stay. I started cleaning. I was reasonably sure that our boat had developed an aromatic richness during our crossing. I washed all the floors and walls inside, and two of the galley cupboards. Outside, I started to scrub the decks. After Django was something approaching clean, I headed off with the laundry and WW continued clean up operations. By the time I returned, it was well past both beer and lunch o'clocks. We headed in to the outdoor restaurant, at which time I posted that first "Yo tieno hamber" (I am hungry) post. (Yes, we are trying to learn espagnol, which is hard because all the Dominicans want to practise their English.)

After a delicious lunch (I had a crillo frito -- fried red snapper -- that was absolutely fantastico) at the Octopus Bar and Grill, we gathered our laundry and met the mechanic who came out to the boat with us. He hung head down in the starboard engine compartment where he repaired an oil leak but was unable to solve the transmission problem. This consists mainly of the engine refusing to go into gear from time to unpredictable time. WW thinks it may be a warranty issue. Pedro the mechanic also changed the oil, oil filtres, and fuel filtres in both engines.

That evening, we ate in Poseidon, the fancier restaurant, which offered very well-endowed salad and dessert bars to go with a choice of main course. We both chose the lobster, and were rewarded with three enormous half tails. And very delicious, too.

We retired early since the morrow would see us starting early to avoid the heat. We would, of course, be repairing our boat in an exotic location.