1st blog from SV Soulstice

Hello!
This is the blog of SV Soulstice - proud owners Stephen and Jennifer. We bought this Caliber 40 in January 2017 at Shilshole Marina in Seattle, Washington. It was a gorgeous boat named Hello World and well cared for by the previous owners, Christy and Jason. They had lived on her for 8 years and decided to try living on land again. We have been getting her ready since for a big journey to include a Pacific Ocean crossing.  Our leave date is August 15th! Our first adventure is to sail from Washington down the western coast of the US with stops in the Channel Islands and Catalina and continue down to Mexico up into the Sea of Cortez. We will then journey over to the South Pacific Islands with a final stop in New Zealand.  This will take us approximately 14-18 months because we are cruuuiiisssing. No hurry, stay safe, have fun!

From January 2017 there have been monthly trips via Alaska Airlines from Reno to Seattle. Our official final move was July 18, 2018.  During that time, we have enjoyed sailing her in the Puget Sound to include a 3 week trip up to the San Juan Islands, the Gulf Islands and up to Princess Louisa  Canada last summer August/September 2017.  I even got to enjoy some Kenmore Air float plane rides as I had to leave to return for a week of work in the middle.

From June 11 to June 21, 2018 we had our big finale of projects for getting her cruising ready. We were on the hard so we could apply bottom paint, wax and buff the hull and start our non skid project (stuff on deck of boat to give you grip!).

waxing and buffing the hull

Boat yard prepped the boat for bottom paint extravaganza

Respirator camaraderie

What is wrong with this picture? Where is Stephen's paint roller?  ha!

Statue on the break wall - got a great sunset enhancement. 

Boat house instead of tree house - very comfy

I loved my outfit as you can tell; bottom painting is the all the rage!

Prepping for new nonskid

Soulstice in the slings- our 2nd haul out as owners

Stephen making meth or maybe just Awl grip for our new nonskid

Lots of amazing sunsets here at Shilshole

Christy and Jason!!! The previous owners celebrating a Taco Tuesday with us at the Sloop! They not only passed on their boat to us but amazing friends at Shilshole marina and the tradition of Taco Tuesday- btw we delayed our departure because of this tradition- Ha!

visit from Montana Karen! good times. 

I think Karen liked our sailing life and is coming to Mexico!

Putting up our new spinnaker with the help of Robbie - racer/sailor/R2K finalist on Wild Card/and overall very cool guy:)

Crazy captain excited about new spinnaker!

Our marina at sunset again - just spectacular show of colors. Look below - I think inspired our color choice for our spinnaker. 

Food provisioning for 1st couple of weeks. We still will have access to shopping but trying to be good and eat in to save $$. Notice our store choice....

Thanks dear family and friends for your support on our sailing endeavor. I am new to the blogging thing and hope I will get better.