26 August, we continued on just a few miles to where there is a U.S. Forest Service dock which is the access to El Capitan Cave. [AK 2411] Recently explored by professional cavers, government geologists and archeologists the cave has been discovered to formed from limestone etched away by water. There are various "flow-stone" stuctures inside - not the most dramatic cave I've seen, but certainly interesting, and worth the climb up the 370 step stairway to the cave entrance. Various findings and lab tests show that the cave was occupied by grizzly (10,000 years ago), sea otter (5,000 years ago) and humans (3500 years ago). The guides - Neta and Sawyer -- were knowledgeable, helpful and interesting. If I got it right, Neta has been doing interpretive stuff for USFS for quite awhile, while Sawyer is a high school junior from the town of Thorne Bay (on Prince of Whales Island). Thorne Bay is small enough that her school is 60 kids K-12; reminiscent of when our kids were attending Horicon School in Annapolis (NW Sonoma County, not Maryland).

A little bit of excitement as we approached the area of the FS dock, in that the keel ground over an unmarked pinnacle reaching up out of deeper water - this is why DavidEllis is a single-engine boat with a full keel and keel shoe protecting the prop and rudder. The grinding sounded horrible, but I took the engine out of gear immediately, and we slipped on through without injury to the running gear.

After the cave tour, we continued down El Capitan Passage into Sea Otter Sound, anchoring overnight at Cyrus Cove (Orr Island) N55º54.15' W133º25.19'. Another beautiful evening in a beautiful part of the world. Dot's been taking lots of sea otter photos, although every time she goes out on the deck to take a pic, Rusty follows, and when he spots the otter in the water rushes the rail, which causes the otter to take a dive. Dorothy is not amused.

27 Aug Friday we got underway at 0700 to catch the slackwater at Karheen Passage (or was it the slack at Tonowek Narrows?) - anyway we're southbound, along the west side of Prince of Wales Island, headed for the town of Craig N55º28.90' W133º08.64'. We're needing to fill our water tanks, get rid of our trash, do some laundry and look for some boat parts.

Another couple of days and we'll be in Ketchikan where Mac will depart, and likely Wade also. I guess we've worn out the crew with all the emergency drills, kedging off reefs, fighting off pirate attacks, typhoons, floggings and then there was the keel-hauling... good help is so hard to find.

Lots more photos on "DavidEllis Nagle Boat" Facebook page