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Mad Max Driving to Jumbo: Our Dominican Republic Boat Life | Ep 88
Oct 10, 2025
Join Chris and Danielle, Army veterans living the sailboat dream on SV Agua Azul, for a real day in the Dominican Republic. From a super high tide under the full moon to wild grocery runs and essential boat fixes, this vlog captures the ups and downs of island life. We start with our propane rental car (spot the dings!), fuel up, and grab a stunning ocean-view breakfast – Dominican fish for her, American classics for him. Share bites and help a local? Check. Then, navigate chaotic parking like Mad Max to Jumbo for groceries, spotting early Christmas cheer. Back at the marina, load the dinghy (it bulges!), motor through rain, and unpack – sniffing for freshness after a past chicken mishap. Watch boat projects: improvise a hatch hinge with screws and washers, tweak the Seawater Pro water maker seals, and unclog the head without a mess. Plus, clean dingy walls with Dawn for that fresh look. Heat's rising to 90s, so open windows and chill. Furry crew gets peanut butter bacon treats. End with reflections on why we love this life. Subscribe for weekly adventures, like for more DIYs, and comment your boat tips! Check our blog at chrisdoeswhat.com for recipes and guides. Chapters 0:00 - High Tide Wake-Up & Rental Car Check 1:30 - Gas Stop & Breakfast with Ocean Views 4:15 - Grocery Chaos at Jumbo 7:45 - Dinghy Load-Up & Rainy Ride Back 10:20 - Unpacking Groceries & Pet Treats 12:50 - Hatch Hinge DIY Fix 15:30 - Water Maker & Head Maintenance 18:00 - Wall Cleaning with Dawn 20:45 - Wrap-Up & Boat Life Thoughts
View Video Transcript
0:00
Okay, guys. Going grocery shopping. Look
0:04
at that tide. Way up. I've never seen
0:06
the tide this high in here. So, full
0:10
moon. I guess it's a super tide.
0:14
Okay, so we got our rental car. It's got
0:17
some damage all around it.
0:21
Uh uh but uh kind of dirty,
0:26
but uh it's a rental car and it's
0:29
propane. But uh always uh I have to I
0:33
have to probably do a video on what
0:35
happened. What do you do when you get in
0:37
an accident here because that ain't fun.
0:41
Police are involved.
0:42
Yes.
0:43
I'm going to take pictures of some
0:44
damage. This
0:45
Yep.
0:48
Okay, guys. We got gas. He left us on E.
0:50
Now we're almost to a half.
0:55
Okay, so we're on our journey to grocery
0:57
shop and we stopped here at the 037
1:01
and uh
1:02
we're going to have a real Dominican
1:04
breakfast.
1:05
She's having Dominican breakfast. I'm
1:07
having the American breakfast.
1:09
And uh
1:10
I think we're going to share each other.
1:13
But yeah, it has a lot of fish, a lot of
1:16
things on the menu here. We just keep it
1:18
simple.
1:19
Wow, it's so breakfast.
1:21
Yeah, it is.
1:23
But check out this view.
1:25
I know we got the cars here, but yeah,
1:27
the ocean is right there. This is right
1:30
down from the grocery store. Our friends
1:33
are about to leave, and it's looking
1:34
pretty wavy out there, though.
1:37
Okay, guys. We got our breakfast. It's
1:39
all about the presentation.
1:44
Okay, guys. So, that was a a great
1:46
restaurant, great experience. actually
1:48
uh hooked up a local with a meal as well
1:50
cuz uh
1:51
he looked hungry.
1:52
Yeah, he looked hungry. But uh yeah, and
1:55
this is our
1:57
There's the view. So,
2:04
okay, guys. Navigating the DR is like
2:07
driving a Mad Max bags, especially in
2:09
just in the grocery store parking lot.
2:12
Especially when you want to get ran
2:14
over, babe, trying to cross. Yep.
2:18
My wife sees Christmas.
2:28
Okay. My babe
2:31
is in heaven. She's like that's her
2:34
favorite holiday.
2:42
Okay guys, we're done with our Ser
2:44
Serena ride. Serena right there. And now
2:46
we're going to Jumbo. But she got her
2:48
Christmas fix on. I got some vodka in
2:50
there. And
2:51
I didn't get my Christmas fix. I didn't
2:53
buy anything.
2:54
No, she didn't buy anything. But yeah,
2:55
she saw Christmas stuff.
2:57
Too early though. Little too early.
3:00
Yeah. I'm going to put the basket.
3:02
Is like you need to start it.
3:04
I am. I'm going to put the bug up face.
3:06
And I'm looking at Scott.
3:08
She's looking at stuff. We're in jumbo
3:10
now. But she's looking at Yeah. pretty
3:15
stuff.
3:16
Okay, guys. We left Jumbo, finished
3:19
grocery shopping. Here's the rail car.
3:21
And we're at the north now. And cuz
3:24
we're doing some uh a little shopping
3:26
for them as well. This is why we dropped
3:30
off groceries to go margaritas, man.
3:36
Well, guys, we're here. We made it to
3:39
the uh marina.
3:42
Our dingy is out there.
3:45
The tide looks a lot lower than when we
3:47
left. There's our dingy right there. You
3:48
can see it right there. Yeah. So, we're
3:51
good. Good to go. We got to cram all the
3:54
in there. Okay. We have the money
3:58
underneath the mat right there.
4:02
And now we're going to get all our
4:05
groceries loaded up.
4:07
It's always a chore.
4:08
Oh, yeah.
4:09
So much easier when you actually live on
4:11
a marina.
4:12
Oh, yeah. It is a lot easier.
4:15
And there is all our groceries we have
4:18
to load up and the fuel. That looks like
4:21
we're uh leaving for Puerto Rico or
4:24
something.
4:25
We're not. It's not like the red cars
4:27
all the time.
4:28
No. So, let me She's going to get in the
4:30
dinghy and I'm going to pass this on to
4:31
her.
4:32
Okay. That's what a fully loaded dinghy
4:34
looks like. My wife's still finishing
4:37
off her margarita to go.
4:41
Okay. got in the dinghy and it's rain.
4:45
There's my babe.
4:48
And uh yeah, this uh little dingy
4:52
engine, this guy or whatever
4:56
on uh two years now. It's still going
4:58
good.
5:02
Don't fix it if it ain't broke. So
5:03
that's a reminder.
5:04
Just a little loud.
5:07
Okay, we're back on the boat. My babe is
5:10
up there sorting the meat. This time we
5:13
actually uh made sure to check expir
5:16
expiration dates cuz we had a chicken
5:19
that was
5:19
we came back with Oh god, it was
5:22
horrible.
5:24
Oh yeah,
5:25
I had it unthought. I was making I make
5:27
a dinner and I went to go make the
5:30
dinner.
5:32
Chris, I almost threw up. Um and I was
5:35
like, oh golly. Okay. So, now I'm going
5:38
back to what I used to do in the States
5:42
and unpacking everything,
5:44
sniffing it, and then repacking it into
5:48
um bags so I could Well, for one, it's
5:50
more so I can stack it better in here
5:53
because the other the other way wasn't
5:56
doing so well.
5:57
No, but
5:58
No, I was getting lazy because I hate
6:01
doing this part. All I want to do after
6:03
a long day of grocery shopping is sit
6:05
down
6:07
And this is her falling apart shirt
6:08
right here.
6:11
Still works.
6:12
Yep. Still covers stuff.
6:16
See if she picks one now.
6:17
Okay. So, this is what we got her at the
6:20
grocery store.
6:21
Not the best. We shouldn't be buying
6:22
that, but we don't normally feed her.
6:25
She is so upset.
6:26
Let's see. Just she get one out.
6:31
Or is she going to just eat them all?
6:35
I think she's eating them all now. She
6:38
pulled one.
6:38
Oh, she got one. You like that?
6:43
It's peanut butter and um
6:47
bacon.
6:49
Bacon. Beacon.
6:51
Peanut butter because uh the cheese
6:53
makes her work
6:56
a lot.
7:00
Okay guys, sitting here back at the boat
7:02
and uh things break on the boat
7:04
constantly and today
7:08
have this hatch.
7:10
It uh exploded on me. See, one side has
7:14
a little pin on it.
7:16
This is the other one that broke off.
7:18
But I went to town and uh couldn't find
7:21
the the new patch, but he gave me a
7:24
longer screw and I can just put that
7:26
screw through there and uh the washer he
7:29
gave me has a nice curve on it. So, it's
7:32
not going to be as pretty, but it will
7:34
be functional. Also, on this boat, um
7:38
yeah, I had to fix the water maker
7:40
again. That's fun. And um the water
7:45
maker basically the seals on one side
7:47
are damaged. So I had to remove one of
7:50
the seals from the other side and I'm
7:52
going to see how long that holds up. But
7:55
uh yeah, I don't uh got to make
7:59
watering. We are making water in Lupron
8:01
and it's not you know it does a great
8:04
job. The Seawir Pro does a great job.
8:07
Just have to change our pre-f filters
8:08
more. And then finally the our front
8:13
head got clogged. The one thing I do
8:16
like about vacuum heads is I can take
8:18
and reverse the pipes and I can put the
8:21
uh pump so it's pumping into the toilet
8:24
and it instantly unclogs. But you have
8:26
to watch it or you'll unclog it all over
8:29
your floor. So that would be not a poop
8:32
explosion, more of a just a oozing of
8:35
poop, which would be bad. But uh yeah,
8:38
so let's get this window fixed. And uh
8:41
yeah, this is a a kind of a honky
8:45
customizing, but it should work right
8:48
now. It's better than the stick I have
8:49
holding the Can you see even see the
8:52
stick? Yeah, right there. So that's
8:54
holding the window open cuz it's hot.
8:58
So hopefully you can see this. Let me
9:00
throw some light in here. That doesn't
9:02
help. But uh yeah, to to fix this,
9:07
let me put my stick in here to add more
9:09
light.
9:12
There we got more light. To fix this,
9:15
you basically this pulls apart right
9:19
here. And then
9:23
have to take one of these sides off
9:25
here.
9:31
These just pull off. It's just screw.
9:37
And now I can just basically uh take and
9:41
these are going to slide over in here.
9:44
And then I'll put the other side back
9:46
on.
9:47
So like so.
9:51
And I'll have two of them. But let me
9:54
get this back together.
9:57
Okay. So, I've got the two ends and uh
10:01
take and drop
10:03
spring in each one.
10:06
Then you have washers that go in between
10:08
here. This is to help it slide.
10:13
And this is my broke piece. I'm going to
10:15
put that in there to act as a spacer.
10:20
But, uh, you want to take and put
10:24
this
10:29
down here like this.
10:32
Now take and put this on here like so.
10:42
There.
10:47
Now take and put the other side
10:50
in here
10:53
like so. And now I have a working hinge.
10:59
Then I'll take
11:01
on the screw side. Drop that through
11:03
there.
11:05
And then this washer
11:09
is bent
11:12
on one side like that.
11:16
Let's see. It's bent this way. So
11:18
that'll work better so it look more
11:21
clean.
11:23
And I'll screw this down.
11:29
So, I might have to loosen this up.
11:43
I'll put this on.
11:46
Let's see if I can slide this one in
11:47
here. Like so. Yeah, I can do that now.
11:51
And then I can put the screw in.
12:05
Okay. I'm going to need a screwdriver to
12:06
tighten it up because I don't want to
12:07
strip it off. It's hung.
12:13
So, manual screwdriver.
12:38
Hopefully that seal up there is good.
12:41
Won't cause any leaks. But then I have
12:44
to take one of these sides off here.
12:48
Okay. And
12:51
put this
12:55
Oh.
12:57
So
13:00
then I
13:04
Okay.
13:08
And squeeze this bottom part together,
13:15
which seems to be harder.
13:21
And now I'll put the screw in.
13:27
Put the washer on this side.
13:34
Get another one here.
13:46
I think there we go.
13:51
And then tighten it down.
13:58
And I need a pair of pliers.
14:09
Okay, it doesn't look as good, but
14:15
it's functional.
14:17
And now that window will stay open.
14:21
That's what we want.
14:23
Okay. Now, maybe me and my babe won't
14:26
sweat as much and uh cuz it is right now
14:29
in Looperon. It's getting up in the 90s
14:32
during the day. White warm.
14:37
Okay, now that that window's clean, I'm
14:39
going to try to clean this back wall.
14:41
Got this Dawn stuff. My wife said this
14:44
stuff works great. So, or she's read it
14:47
works great. So, I'm going to shoot on
14:49
the wall. See how it works.
14:52
So, as you can see, I sprayed down the
14:54
wall. Spray a little bit more.
14:57
You see there's stains on it.
15:02
So, got wall sprayed down. We'll let it
15:05
sit there for a while and then we'll
15:07
come back and wipe it off.
15:10
Okay. So, I don't have any paper towels
15:12
on the boat. This is actually a rip, but
15:15
let's see. It looks like Oh, wow.
15:19
Yeah, that is
15:21
Yeah, the dirt is just falling off that.
15:25
Oh, yeah. So, let me go ahead and wipe
15:28
this down and uh then see, we'll do a
15:32
contrast between the two sides.
15:36
Okay, so there it is.
15:39
Uh going to do a little bit more
15:41
scrubbing, but let me turn on a light.
15:44
And let's see if you can you see that
15:47
it's like a dingy yellow
15:50
and this is white. It's kind of hard to
15:54
see, but yeah, it is a big difference.
15:58
A real big difference. You see that's
16:01
dingy.
16:02
That's now white. So yeah.
16:07
And uh, of course, I'm going to tear
16:08
down the bed, scrub the whole wall, and
16:11
uh, got a lot of uh, I guess cleaning
16:14
projects for this now.
16:17
Okay, guys. So, we're going to end the
16:19
video here. You know, did boat projects,
16:23
did grocery shopping, all that jazz.
16:26
But, uh, yeah, till next week. We'll see
16:31
what happens. We're almost real time, so
16:34
I've got to get this out and upload. So
16:36
y'all take care. Subscribe, like, all
16:38
that good
16:41
Bye.
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