BOAT NAME: Moana Hale
BOAT TYPE: Hatteras 58 LRC Extended
SKIPPER: Bill Suttell
EXPERIENCE: 35 Years
CLUB: Seattle YC
BUILT: 1980
PURCHASED: 2006

FAVORITE DESTINATION:
Desolation Sound, B.C., Canada. The water is warm and flat, there is lots of seafood and the scenery is spectacular.

FAVORITE BOATING EXPERIENCE:
Circumnavigating Vancouver Island last year. It is beautiful and remote. You can spend days without seeing another boat. Lots of coves to be alone, and true wildlife, bears on the beach, eagles, sea otters and lots of fish to catch. The only drawback was it was very gray not a lot of sun.

ABOUT THE CREW:
First Mate-Best Mate Debbi (my wife) who’d guess that a girl from Boise, Idaho would love boating so much. She not only can handle rough water, she kind of likes it. She is an incredible chef (I eat like a king). She likes to scuba dive, fish, wakeboard, inner tube and generally have fun. She is incredible as a deck hand, from setting or pulling the anchor, to placing fenders and handling lines. The 2 of us alone can handle the boat just fine and its all because of her. Captain that’s me Bill. Thanks to my dad I’ve been boating the Northwest since I was a kid. Oh yeah just in case it matters I am an attorney and Debbi is a paralegal/office manager. We live together and work together, we are a team on everything - we are a match made in Heaven and I thank God everyday.

REASON FOR PURCHASING THIS BOAT:
We wanted a long range cruiser that was comfortable. The 58 Hatteras LRC is a proven hull, our boat was extended 6' in th cockpit when built so that was a plus and last owner had it re-powered with John Deeres - it is very economical but still has twin screw. It packs over 2300 gallons of fuel whih gives it range of around 3000nm. It has 3 staterooms and 4 heads and the master is seperated from the guest rooms so their is a lot of privacy. The master head has full size bath tub for my princess. The galley has full size appliances which Debbi loves. So it seemed to fit all our needs for our future plans.

PREVIOUS BOATS OWNED:
38' Hatteras sportfish 40' Egg Harbor 50' Ocean Alexander Mark1 (still own, anybody want to buy it?)

INTEREST IN THE FUBAR ODYSSEY:
Getting help with immigrations into Mexico is big plus. Traveling with a group seems safest and hopefully meet some other cruising couples to explore Mexico with. We are thinking of going to Costa Rica and wondering if anyone else is interested in going that far south.

BOATING STORY:
Many good boating stories, but a recent favorite involved my stepson who decided against his Mom’s wishes to join the Army. He was scheduled to ship out mid July so we agreed to take him and his buddies on a boat trip to Roche Harbor for the 4th of July. We loaded the boat with tequila, beer and his buddies and set off on Friday night. We were safely at anchor on Saturday night and enjoying Roche Harbor when at approximately 5:30pm his Mom came to me with the sad story - "the boys are out of tequila". I come from the firm belief that if you are willing to volunteer to insure my freedom the least I can do is make sure you have shot of tequila if you want it. So I plan to go to shore, commandeer a car and get a ride to Friday Harbor at the other end of San Juan Island where the liquor store is located. Unfortunately a phone call trashes those plans as the liquor store closes at 6pm - WTF?

Not to be defeated on an important mission I remember from my younger days that there's a liquor store in Sidney, B.C. and knowing the Canadians are a fun loving bunch it probably would be open later than 6pm, which a quick cell phone call confirmed. So I tell my wife we need to go for a ride in the whaler. We fly across Haro Strait for about 20 miles to arrive in Sidney. We hike up town for about a mile to the liquor store. My wife grabs a ½ gallon of tequila and heads to the counter. I look at her in disbelief, all this for ½ a gallon of tequila? I grab 2 more gallons of Jose’s liquid fun and she smiles. On the way back down the dock we crash a yacht club party because by now we are hungry and thirsty. The friendly boaters load us with food and more drinks and send us back to the US. We crash back against the waves and swell with the sun starting to set to reward our country's most honorable boys. Of course my wife almost dies when I call to report in to US Customs and they ask the purpose of our short trip to Canada - "to get some tequila for the boys". The boys had a great weekend, and now after 2 tours in Iraq and 5 years later our boy is back safe on US soil. Now him and his buddies just want to go boating.