When I was last asked what I knew of the cave-in status at this mile marker, I really didn't have a lot of information. Remember, it happened last July when we had over 20 inches of rain in a couple of days and briefly blocked the ICW between Chocktawhatchee Bay (Destin/Fort Walton) and West Bay (panama City). Today we took a 50-mile round trip over there to blow the cobwebs off the boat and to see what is going on. We live east of the area, but since most cruisers come through our area west-to-east, I'll give the order of what I found heading east. At mile 263 there is still a massive dip in the dike on the south side of the channel. There is ongoing repair, and it appears that a massive sausage device, probably filled with sand, which may be the base of the repair. Contrary to the last profile of this area I saw on the USCOE website, there appears to be no serious shoaling there. I ran the boat slowly within about a boat length of the south bank and never saw less than about 14 feet of water (tide level was plus .4 foot). I see no problem here for cruisers. There were construction vehicles on site, and there may be waterborne construction craft in the area in the future; so be watching as you come around the turn just before this area. At mile 265, there is a break in the seawall on the south bank, but we saw no depth issues as we passed in both directions. At 266.6 photo, there has been an unreported partial collapse on the north bank. Needless to say, the north side of the channel should probably be avoided, but we saw no depth issues as we cruised either direction in the center of the channel. A little farther on at about mile 266.8 and mile 267.1, I came upon two unlighted temporary buoys. They are new to me and may not be the only buoys in this 15-mile cut between Choctawhatchee Bay and West Bay because we did not go all the way to the westward end of the cut. The westward buoy at mile 266.8 was green and guarded a brown-looking shoal area on the south side of the channel that we could clearly see in the relatively clear water. The red buoy at mile 267.1 (on your chart, right at the outflow of West Bay Creek on the north side of the channel) did not guard any particular thing we could see. There were no depth issues running this area. All in all, barring serious rainfall (I am talking about in excess of 4-6 inches in a day like that which caused the cave-ins in the first place), the Grand Canyon seems to be in good enough shape for relatively carefree passage for mile 263 eastward. I have heard of no problems to the west of mile 263. Rich Gano Calypso (1972 Grand Banks 42) Panama City, FL