April-August Roll-Up

Before it gets even more embarrassingly tardy, I need to update our activities over the last five months. First, no cruising with the exception of a 5-day jaunt to Anacortes in May to attend Trawlerfest.  Our big activity has been to first get our house ready to sale (April through June) and then (since June 30) keep it looking good while it has been on the market.

At the end of April we started subletting slips at Shilshole Marina and move on board Alpenglow. That got us out of the way of the contractor while work was done on the house and spared the cats the trauma of being confined to a small area while scary noises happened around them. Now that the house is on the market, remaining on the boat keeps the house cleaner and eases the showing of the house by the realtor.  It does mean we commute regularly from Shilshole in the Ballard neighborhood to the house in West Seattle.

Living in Shilshole has been fine. It is a big marina (3,000 slips) but since a maximum of 300 slips are for live-aboards, except for weekends and sunny weekday evenings, it is pretty quiet.

Ballard has a strong Scandinavian heritage (especially Norwegian) and a statue of Leif Ericson stands prominently on marina grounds, staring to the northwest and keeping watch over the moored vessels.

Our sublet at Shilshole runs through the end of August. Hopefully we’ll do a little cruising before settling back in for the winter at our yacht club’s Winslow station.