Black Dog II
| Vessel Name: | Black Dog II |
| Vessel Make/Model: | CT 41 pilothouse ketch |
| Hailing Port: | Seattle |
| Crew: | Roger and Lorraine Atkins |
| About: | We each have over 40 years of sailing experience on the West Coast. |
| Extra: | We left Everett, Washington in August 2003 for Mexico. We spent six years cruising the coast of Mexico and Central America before making a Panama Canal transit in December of 2009. |
16 July 2011 | Bocas del Toro
We love Panama!
We left the boat at the Bocas del Toro yacht club in May and flew back to Seattle via Fort Lauderdale. We spent most of April sanding and varnishing the bright work which will need two more coats of varnish when we return in November. We will also have to repaint the cabin tops.
20 December 2010 | Shelter Bay
Still here
We are still in Shelter Bay working on the boat. Our shipment arrived and we have installed the new GPS/chartplotter. I am anxious to use it. We also "remarried" the Tacktic wind indicator on the mast with the display unit in the cockpit. It is blowing out there! We are waiting for the weather window so that we can move on to the San Blas islands. Panama has experienced record rain this season. December is the start of the dry season and the north trade winds. The trades seem to be returning so hopefully we will only have the short rain squall.
18 November 2010 | Fort Sherman, Colon Panama
Shelter Bay
Black Dog II has been in the water for almost four weeks and we are still working on electrical problems. We have new batteries and the starter motor has been repaired. We are waiting for a shipment from Miami that contains my new refrigerator and a generator. In addition, a new battery charger will [...]
28 September 2010
Future plans
We are planning to return to Shelter Bay Marina in Panama on October 22. We hope to splash the boat within a day or two. We have given Black Dog II a paint job and had a few minor repairs made while we spent the summer in Seattle.
Shelter Bay
The weather is warm with rain showers in the late afternoon. November is the wettest month of the year in Panama. It is still interesting to watch the ships loading into the Gatun locks or unloading while we wait to drive across the little one-lane bridge at the entrance to the two locks. We also see the new canal sections under construction along the road to Colon. I would like to be in Panama when the new canal opens in 2012.
Although I am anxious to get to the San Blas islands, we probably won't leave here until early December. Still, this is a lovely place to wait, listening to the birds and the howler monkeys.
