To the crew at Watersdancing
This was at the launching of "Sum Sha Thut" in
May, this year.
Thanks for your help and thanks Don for the
beautiful design. Viewers of the boat are suitably impressed!
The name, roughly translated, means the sun &
its life giving energy, but its almost a whole story. It was given to me by
Florance James, an elder & linguist of our neighbouring island, Kuper, a
Penalakut reservation. She also gave me the name of the sea serpent, "Siinlhqi",
and its' accompaning legend.( It was actually a two headed sea serpent.)
The art work design of the sun & sea serpent was
done by Rocky James, Florence's son & I transposed it on to the hatch
covers.
The carvings of the orca whales were done by a
Penalakut carver, Duke James, and I epoxied them to both sides of the bow.
It was a great project & a wonderful way to
spend spare moments (when they could be found) over a couple of years.
I'd like to build another of your designs but
first I have to build a shop to build it in.
Oh yeah, the boat is fun to paddle, tho I
haven't had much of chance to get out so far, but it will come
Happy paddling!
James Alton,
Thetis Island, B.C.
