Hi,

I did it fast in two ways; first of all I used some of my Steem Dollars to buy Steem on the internal market; which you can access via the drop down in your wallet Buy/Sell Steem

Then I sent my Steem to Bitrex and converted it to Bitcoin, then I sent my Bitcoin to my Kraken account and sold it for Euros. Lastly I deposited into my bank and they gave me GBP, I then transferred some of it to my landlord :-).

The second and much easier way, and in fact a better rate, is using Blocktrades, their I simply sent Steem Dollars without the bother of converting and then they send it on to my Kraken account, in one swift move.

Then as before convert to euros, etc.

That's it!

I believe, powering down will be better, which is what you've done, because you'll get a better rate and your SD to USD rate will be closer to 1:1 (I think). I'm doing a test myself, but I'm trying to change up as little as possible, because there is some good leverage to be had, by keeping SD.

Hope that helps.

CG