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es⋅o⋅lute [rez-uh-loot] –adjective 1. firmly resolved or determined; set in purpose or opinion. 2. characterized by firmness and determination, as the temper, spirit, actions, etc.

Those definitions might be accompanied by a photo of a boat that paid a visit to Oriental in late October.

Resolute tied up in Oriental.

The boat is a Glen-L.

It took Mike Trusz about 20 years to build it.

That wasn’t his plan at the start. A high school math teacher, and later, a principal, in Ontario, Mike says he started out with a plan 30 years ago, “ I said that I would work from 7 to 10 every night during the week, and would work on it full days on the weekends.”

Mike Trusz.

Pretty quickly though, he says he came to realize that kind of schedule would be “crazy because you don’t have a life.”

He found a different way to approach the project. First, he put a cover over the project during the cold weather — and winters do get cold in Fenelon Falls, on the Trent-Severn canal in Ontario. Then, he says, he worked on the boat in spurts, “whenever I could put 4-5 weeks together. “

He launched the boat in 2001. Friends, he says, offered suggestions for what he called, “cute names” but he held out. “I’m a bit of a conservative,” he said, (though adding, “not in the Republican sense.” )

He decided upon “Resolute” for the name because as he put it, “How long did it take to build it?”

From aft.

A few years ago, Mike retired from his job as a principal and for the past few years, he has sailed “Resolute” on Georgian Bay.

He left there August 15th. This trip down the East Coast of the US is the boat’s “first time in this part of the world.”

Traveling with him is his blond golden retriever, Caja. (The 10-1/2 year old dog was named by — and for — Mike’s children, Cameron and Jamie, who are now grown.) Because of Caja, Mike’s been staying in marinas on this trip, because it’s easier for the dog to disembark.

Caja.

He says that they’ve also been motoring 95% of the time. There’ve been times when he says he found the “weather a little too boisterous.” and the boat, “a little tender.”

“I have to reef early.”

The icy rime on the sail cover is the reminder of the cold night before.

Asked where he was headed, he said, “I don’t know, other than, ‘South’”. He said that he is on no time table except one, and it’s one that might confound most sailors heading south this time of year.

Mike’s schedule is this: he hopes to be midway down the coast of Florida by the middle of December. Wherever he is, he says, he plans to leave the boat and then, go home to be with his family for the holidays and then stay in Ontario for ski season.

He figures that’ll be a couple of months.

The crew of “Resolute”. Mike Trusz and Caja.

And then?

Well, he says, “if the boat will still sail, and the dog is still talking to me, and I’m not tired of it yet,” he’ll take the boat to the Bahamas. If those three things aren’t in sync, he says, “I have a trailer.”

Block on Resolute.

Posted Friday November 14, 2008 by Melinda Penkava

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