Koinonia Sailing and RVing

This was Our first real RV travel experience as we headed to South Florida and the Everglades! Our travels took us all the way to Flamingo Campgrounds and the Florida Bay, then across to the Cypress National Forest on our way to visit Linda's cousin Debbie and Aunt Mickey who is 99 years old! Along the way we experienced overnight camping at a Harvest Host site (golf course), a commercial lakeside campground, and a Florida water management district land management area.

Linda and I visited the Ocala National Forest Salt Springs campground for 2 nights. We hiked the Bear Swamp Trail several times and swam in the Salt Spring! We also did some low level biking around the campgrounds.

We utilized full hookups.The campground was very nice and semi-rustic.

It has been awhile since we returned from cruising aboard Koinonia II and since then, much has taken place in our lives. Linda and I are now planning to spend some time traveling around the US and Canada in our RV motorhome "Koinonia III".

We will keep our travel logs as best as possible on this blog site, so stay tuned...

Well I guess it wasi bound to happen Koinonia II has found some new owners...

Bitter sweet, but I think she will be well taken care of and it is my hope she serves and takes care of the new owners as well as she has for the Gilbert family and guests.

Koinonia II will be renamed to Carolina Girl with the home port of Beaufort, South Carolina. Watch for her and the new owners as they begin their retirement life cruising the East coast and eventually the Caribbean...Oh what a life!

Linda and I were planning to depart Nassau first thing Sunday morning June 2 with the option to spend the night in a Berry island anchorage or continue on to the West End of Grand Bahama island before crossing to Florida. However, the weather update Saturday morning showed a weather window that was going to be tight unless we left ASAP. So within a matter of hours we readied the boat and ourselves to make our last passage to Home!

With our early afternoon departure, we arrived at the first anchorage option after dark, which we passed up. As forecasted, this weather window was proven to be much drier after a week of wet weather albeit with lighter winds requiring motor sailing to make distance at a 5 VMG to assure making it to Florida before the weather turned bad.

As we moved closer to the West End, we decided to forego more fuel and rest at marina to get across to Florida. This meant an extra night at sea for Linda making for her longest passage to date. Our float plan called for entering Florida at the Ft. Pierce inlet and heading north in the intracoastal waterway to visit our good friends the Lamberts, in Melbourne Florida. We were looking forward to this visit, even though it meant an extra 4 days getting home on the intracoastal waterway. However, as we tried to kill time in the Gulf Stream waiting for daylight to enter, we had a hard time staying south of the inlet and had to point our boat way south towards Miami. Furthermore, we were picking up NOAA weather forecast calling for bad weather out of the gulf in 2 days, but still unpredictable where it would head. So, we decided to just take advantage of the northern flow of the Gulf Stream and head for Jacksonville, even though it meant another night at sea.

We made good time and made it to north Florida approximately 30 miles off St. Augustine as the sun was setting for Linda's third night at sea. However, the NOAA forecast was reporting severe afternoon thunderstorms heading offshore near Jacksonville. Reports indicated the storm cells were heading northeast. Unfortunately, the weather became more widespread and began to close in on our location! As the skies became darker in front of us, we kept changing our course towards the lighter skies. Eventually we were heading due south away from Jacksonville. Finally the weather caught up with us and we had no other choice but to head directly into it. We rolled in all the sails and secured any loose items. The seas got rough, the wind got high and we set the boat speed and course for the most comfort possible. We could not see 10 ft. In front of us and we just hung on in the cockpit as lightning was occurring as close as a 1/4 mile away. This lasted for about 30 minutes until we broke into the other side. After another 10 minutes or so, the seas calmed down and the skies began to clear and we were back on course for the St. John's river and home!

With Koinonia anchored off of Stocking island, one mile from the dinghy dock in Victoria Lake, Geoegetown, and the wind blowing 15 to 20 knots, I headed to the airport to meet Linda upon her arrival back to Koinonia after a month of shore leave!

Linda spent the night before her 6:00 am departure in the Jacksonville International airport. She flew first to Miami where she boarded Bahamas Air for her arrival in Nassau Bahamas where after 6 hours she changed to a puddle jumper that first took her to Rock Sound and then on to Georgetown where I met her waiting on her luggage. After she picked up her normal carry on bag, we discovered her main luggage was no where to be found. After filling a missing luggage report, Linda discovered that she was suppose to pull her luggage in Nassau and personally take it through customs and then recheck it, despite being told that the bag was going to be checked all the way to Georgetown. We located the luggage, but had to return the next day to get it. Oh well, it was just another $40 taxi ride!

Linda says it was just as well, because the one mile dinghy ride back to the boat was against the wind and waves and was a wet ride. The next day her luggage had a drier dinghy ride.

While in Georgetown, we joined fellow cruisers at the Chat 'n Chill volleyball beach to play what else, some volleyball. We had a great time, but it was time to head northwest toward home while exploring the Exumas.