From Cape Decision it is about ten miles northeasterly over the open waters of Sumner Strait to Shaken Bay and the entry through Shaken Strait to El CAPITAN PASSAGE, where we anchored in Entrance Cove and where the entrance to the passage leads off to the east. The book says "this is a little-known but fascinating part of Alaska". We enjoyed a delicious meal of Dean’s "netted" king salmon for supper. Glad we have a freezer on board! Then we took the dinghy and visited a small nearby island where amongst the "very old forest" there was the remains of a very old graveyard. What a beautiful area to explore and take pictures of gravestones that go back to mid 1800 and early 1900’s. That night the wind howled and we were in for a change in the weather. We waited until high tide at noon to pull anchor as near-by "Dry Pass" is very shallow. At one time it "was" dry but a dredging made it possible for boats to pass through and thus what was once one island became two. Beyond Dry Pass the passage widens but still shallow – watch for deadheads, etc.! By the way – we are travelling south along the west side of Prince of Wales Island - and a note of interest – it is 140 miles long and 45 miles wide – the "book" says it is the third-largest island in the United States. Remember on our way north we traveled up Clarence Strait on the Inside Passage on the east side of Prince of Wales Island. Mid afternoon we tied up to the float at El Capitan Caves, which is reported to be the deepest cave in the U.S. It is located on the southern flank of 2,500-foot El Capitan Peak. Rain and low clouds today but that didn’t stop us from hiking through the forest up to the Cave. It was a long up-hill hike, very well done with a total of 387 steps and sturdy handrails to cheer us along. You will enjoy the pictures, and we took lots! For a change in the evening we watched the movie "Grease" – an oldie but we all enjoyed the old memories.

JULY 4 – Okay being that I am one half American I will give you a little History about where we are. TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST – At 16.9 million acres, the largest national forest in the U.S. and – Part of the largest coastal temperate rain forest in the world – and home to 5,000 brown bears and home to approx. 75,000 people. It surrounds the north end of the Inside Passage, a popular and historic travel route. AND this is where we have been hanging out for the last 6 weeks!! We are enjoying every minute of it.

At the moment we are at the northern end of Prince of Wales Island . El Capitan Cave is where we are at the moment. It is the biggest and longest of numerous limestone grottos under the rain forest-more than 850 in all.

Finally that is all for now except Norm caught a salmon a couple hours ago as we are travelling here in the passage and got it right up to the boat but our net was just too small and we lost it. I got a couple pictures tho’ – it was about 15#. Fun!

July 4^th – we had an evening get-together with Carol and Dean at our house