Coming full circle: SISU, sister-ship of Tonie O

Those of you who've known us for a long time may remember that we first came to Alaska in a 22-foot C-Dory named "Tonie O," an easy name for me to remember on a VHF radio. She was the first boat to take us across Queen Charlotte Sound and Dixon Entrance. Over several summers in a row, we trailered the "Tonie O" to Washington or different parts of Canada, launched her, and headed up for our yearly dose of Southeast Alaska. That boat took us all over Southeast over the years: we visited almost every place that has a Post Office, and even officiated a wedding in Pelican with that boat. She also caught a lot of King Salmon in the Monterey Bay, out of Santa Cruz and Moss Landing, CA.

After a few years of cruising around with "Tonie O," we noticed that we were usually attracted to the same places as the commercial salmon troll fleet out of Craig, Alaska, and we really fell in love with the communities on Prince of Wales Island. One of our friends in the fleet once told us, "I knew you would get bit." So we sold the Tonie O, and we bought our Allweather "Itsuro" we rigged as a hand-troller. We slowed down to life at six knots, while chasing salmon every summer. We were sad to part with Tonie O, so we later acquired a 16-foot C-Dory to keep us fishing in Monterey Bay, and to serve as our water taxi, once we moved up here to Southeast Alaska. But the 22-foot C-Dory always held a very special place in our hearts, since it was the first boat to bring us up here. Now that we've made POW our principal residence, we've realized how nice it would be to have a similar boat here, that we could trailer to other parts of the island, and that moves a little faster than our hand-troller, while allowing us to camp out onboard.

I'm always amazed by our incredibly good luck: whether it's finding the most amazing builder for our house, or perfect timing for important life events, or finding the next "right boat." Apparently Shawn found a C-Dory in Ketchikan that's very similar to the boat that first brought us up here. At first, I thought that this was the worst possible time to get another boat. We're still in the process of getting our house finished, and we're catching up with a few unanticipated travel expenses, etc. Yet not only is the boat,  in perfect, well-maintained condition, she was also being sold by one of the nicest couples in Ketchikan. Dale is a very talented woodworker, and he and his wife carry out a ministry that really helps others. On top of that, through the process of buying the boat, we also got to meet Ken and his wonderful crew at Timber and Marine in Ketchikan. They installed and performed all the maintenance on the Honda outboard on SISU. They share the same maintenance philosophy as we did with our twin Hondas on the Tonie O, which were still going strong after 3000 hours. So we're happy to have them as new friends here. 

I even love the name of boat, which is the Finnish word, Sisu.  There's no direct English translation, but it's approximate meaning is so appropriate for a few people we know, and it perfectly embodies the attributes of this type of boat and our experiences with it. Here's what Wikipedia says about that:

<<"Sisu is a Finnish concept described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience,[1][2] and hardiness[3][4] and is held by Finns themselves to express their national character.{{See talk page, at Lead refs}} Lead refs is generally considered not to have a literal equivalent in English.

Sisu is a grim, gritty, white-knuckle form of courage that is presented typically in situations where success is against the odds. It expresses itself in taking action against the odds and displaying courage and resoluteness in the face of adversity, in other words, deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision, even despite repeated failures. It is in some ways similar to equanimity, with the addition of a grim kind of stress management.
"Gutsy" is a fairly close translation that uses the same metaphor (found in more languages than Finnish and English), as the word derives from sisus, which means "interior" and "entrails, guts". A concept closely related to sisu is grit, which shares some of its denoting elements with sisu, save for "stress management" and passion for a long-term goal. Sisu may have an element of passion but it is not always present,[5] unlike in the case of grit as defined by Dr. Angela Duckworth.[6]">>

I've learned to appreciate those full-circle aspects that our life sometimes takes.