MV Dirona travel digest for Seattle Relocation 2021

Position: 47°39.69'N, -122°22.32'W

Dropping off the old exhaust cladding at Ballard Insulation in Seattle to get a replacement made.

Position: 47°36.22'N, -122°20.13'W

Picking up our mail from the UPS store in downtown Seattle. Because we already ordered a lot in Charleston, we didn't have as much compared to other summers.

Position: 47°40.61'N, -122°24.60'W

A visit with Peter and Laurie Hayden on their beautiful new Nordhavn 68 Tanglewood at Shilshole Bay Marina. It was great to see them both again and catch up. We haven't seen Peter since Amsterdam in late 2019 and Laurie since we were in Portsmouth, NH with Dirona in 2016. And Tanglewood is a truly spectacular boat.

Position: 47°40.79'N, -122°24.35'W

Statue of Viking Leif Erikson at Shilshole Bay Marina. According to legend, Leif Erikson sailed from Trondheim, Norway in the year 1000 on his historic voyage to reach North America. The statue was erected here for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and in 1997 the Leif Erikson Society of Seattle gave a replica to Trondheim to honor the thousand-year anniversary of the city's founding and Erikson's epic journey. We saw that replica while visiting Trondheim in 2018.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

When we left Charleston on our road trip to Seattle, we were planning to return near the end of July. But James recently stepped into a new job that's was proving to be harder to do remotely. So partway through our road trip, we decided to get an apartment in Seattle. To add to the excitement, we rented it sight unseen while on the trip (well, we did see on-line pictures).

We just took possession today and here are enjoying the view from the balcony. We're living in the same neighborhood, Belltown, that we lived in before leaving Seattle in 2012 on our trip around the world. Bell Harbor Marina, where we lived aboard for nearly four years, is adjacent to where the cruise ship in the background is moored. It's nice to be back in familiar territory.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

Today we moved everything from the hotel room into the new apartment. We're still making good use of the LL Bean XL rolling duffle bags we bought to carry parts back to Dirona on return trips to the US. With the mail we'd picked up at the UPS store, we had four full bags to tranport, plus Spitfire and "Kitty Central".

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

Spitfire checking out his new digs. In the hotel rooms we stopped in on our drive across the country, he acclimatized to the rooms in about 10-15 minutes. In the larger apartment, it took him a couple of days of continuous inspection before he felt comfortable. We could tell he was nervous because he slept in his carry bag instead of in his bed.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

Sunset over the Olympic peninsula, viewed from our new apartment. Just left of the cruise ship at center is Elliott Bay Marina, where we kept our previous boat for nine years.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

Today our first piece of furniture arrived: a mattress. When we moved from our house in Seattle onto the boat back in 2009, we sold all our furniture and didn't keep anything in storage. So we're starting completely from scratch in the new apartment. We really wanted to spend the night here last night, but we only had bedding and no mattress yet. So we slept on the floor with some towels for padding in a bit of a throwback to college days.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

Even in the apartment we have a "spare cat".

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

We're slowly building up some furniture—we have deck chairs now.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

We've got some living room furniture on order, but right now are making do with a couple of Chill Sack bean bag chairs and a box for a coffee table. The bean bags are actually working out pretty well. But we are looking forward to getting a sofa and table :).

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

We of course don't need nearly as many tools in an apartment as on Dirona, but a few are nice to have. Spitfire, sleeping in the background, has zero interest.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

View to Elliott Bay from our apartment on a sunny morning. The Port of Seattle is at far left, our last Seattle port of Bell Harbour Marina is at center in front of the cruise ship, and Elliott Bay Marina where we moored our previous boat is at far right. In the distance is West Seattle at center and Bainbridge Island at right, with the Olympic Mountains beyond (click image for a larger view).

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

We now have a bed to put our mattress on.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

Our dining room table also arrived today. We've only got two chairs for now, the rest are coming later. And we don't yet have any place mats or dishes (we're still using the ones from our road trip), but we're making progress.

Position: 32°46.62'N, -79°57.08'W

We're back on Dirona in Charleston for the first time since departing on our road trip in early June. When we originally left the boat, we were planning to return near the end of July, but ended up changing plans and decided to get an apartment in Seattle.

To combat the high humidity here, we left the HVAC running while we away and returned to find the strainer severely plugged. The salon system could barely run and the pilot house kept shutting off with a high-pressure warning, but fortunately the master and guest units still worked for us to sleep comfortably down below after arriving past midnight last night.

Position: 32°46.62'N, -79°57.08'W

James installing the new exhaust cladding the Ballard Insulation made for us. The new cladding looks and works great.

Position: 32°47.40'N, -79°56.77'W

A fun meal on the patio at gastropub Fuel in Charleston. The restaurant is built inside an old gas station, hence the name, with all sorts of memorabilia on display.

Position: 32°46.62'N, -79°57.08'W

Our nav computer has been exhibiting hardware issues recently, and we really depend on it for remote monitoring. We do have a backup computer, but setting up a new system from scratch would consume a day or two, so we instead decided to swap the boot drive into the backup system. Here James is gingerly removing the drive from the original system to install in the backup computer. That seemed to resolve the issues.

Position: 32°46.62'N, -79°57.08'W

Since running the HVAC continuously while we're away appears infeasible due to rapid marine growth, we bought a dehumidifier to deal with the high humidity in Charleston. Here we are testing it in the pilot house, but we plan to put it in the guest stateroom shower while we are away and let it drain into the shower pan.

Position: 32°46.62'N, -79°57.08'W

Since we'll be living in an apartment in Seattle, we're moving all our personal property off the boat but will leave anything boat-specific on board for when we make return visits. The movers arrived this morning to pack everything up and transport it to Seattle.

Position: 32°46.62'N, -79°57.08'W

We don't have that much to move compared to a normal household, but we did manage to fill a good part of a box truck.

Position: 32°47.33'N, -79°56.28'W

Monza Pizza Bar in Charleston is full of Ferrari pictures and memorabilia, including this Ferrari engine suspended over one of the tables. When the manager saw us studying the photos, he came over to introduce himself and give us some background on the restaurant. We enjoyed talking with him and had a great meal there as well.

Position: 32°46.62'N, -79°57.08'W

We hadn't yet removed the storm windows after the run across the Atlantic from Ireland, so we briefly turned the boat around this morning to remove the port-side windows (we can easily reach the starboard-side ones from the walkway).

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

An unusual sunset over Elliott Bay in overcast conditions, viewed from our apartment patio.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

The moving company arrived this morning with our property from the boat, and we're busy unpacking everything.

Position: 47°37.00'N, -122°20.55'W

Our bicycles in their new home in our storage unit in our apartment building's garage. This is the first time in their 12-year life that they have ever been stored inside. Most of that time was on the fly-bridge of Dirona or the cockpit of the previous boat, or occasionally on the dock at a marina. The bikes, Giant FCR-2s, have done remarkably well given the conditions and how heavily we've used them.