Ocean World Marina, Cofresi, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

We did a few boat jobs in the morning, cleaning out the bilges and I was hoisted twice up the mast to try and and resolve the problem with our steaming light which is not currently working. I even attempted to go to the gym, having found out that it was in the marina office building. However, when we got there we found that it consisted of two treadmills, one marked out of order and a free weights machine. I tried to switch on the other treadmill but found it wasn’t working either, Roberto said he would call maintenance. At least I tried!

Ocean World Casino

A few new boats arrived today, so at least we weren’t the only visiting yachts in the marina. We went to have a look at a couple of catamarans that had come in, amused to see the new arrivals subjected to the large official boarding party too, when the officials saw us again the smiled and waved at us, we just couldn’t get used to the friendliness from officials and the reports of baksheesh (backhanders) expected as a standard in the Dominican Republic is not at all true in our experience.

We spoke to my parents on Skype in the afternoon who had enjoyed their first weekend aboard their new boat touring Staffordshire. They’d had a great weekend and reported a number of real ale experiences, which went to prove it’s the boating life that leads you to the pub, it’s not just us!

We decided to have a walk along the beach we’d seen on our way to Puerto Plata in the afternoon. We were amazed to see it was packed with people again as it was a Monday, though we later found out it was a Bank Holiday here too. We went for a drink at a bar on the beach front and enjoyed some people watching of the happy families enjoying their day off in a way that we always seem to talk about doing in the UK and never do but they obviously do here as a matter of course. To prove my theory about drinking and the boating life, the next table to us was entirely occupied by marina residents, identified by the All-Inclusive type fluorescent wrist bands we are made to wear.

Busy family day on the beach

We got talking to a couple from the US, Mark & Mimi who are skipper and hostess of a boat on the same dock as us in the marina. We had a pleasant hour or two exchanging our experiences of life aboard and we left them to get some food agreeing to meet up the next day.