Today is July 11......HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT........my favorite son in law!
We arrived in Portsmouth yesterday around 1 pm after spending 2 days in glorious Coinjock.  WHEREINTHEHELLISCONINJOCK??? 
Coinjock is an unincorporated community in Currituck County, North Carolina. It is located on U.S. Route 158 between Barco and Grandy, about 20 miles (32 km) south of the Virginia state line, and is at mile marker 50 on the Intracoastal Waterway. The island to the east of Coinjock in the Currituck Sound has a village called Waterlily, which uses the postal address of Coinjock as well. This island is also known as Church's Island by locals because of a decayed church that was once a landmark of the tiny community. Coinjock is bordered by Currituck Sound to the east; the North River lies to the west. Its Zip code is 27923.
Residents suggest the name Coinjock is of Native American origin referring to mulberries, which might have been prevalent in the area many years ago. There are no mulberry trees there now.^[1][2] The name has also been spelled Coenjock,^[3] Cowenjock,^[4] or Cornjack^[5] and sometimes as two words with the second beginning with a capital J. Bishop Thomas Coke visited Coenjock, as he called it, and preached to a small congregation in its chapel on March 19, 1785.^{[6]
and one more thing ............this marina is noted for their "world" famous prime rib, so most of the men want to stop here, in actuality, it's not all the good!
and this my dear friends is all you will ever need to know about Coinjock!}

so we went through the bridge and lock at Great Bridge, right outside Atlantic Yacht Basin, then up to Gilmartin bridge and gave way to this big boat being pushed through.  A site you don't get to see every day!

Joe can't wait to get this spaetzel and weinerschnitzel!!!  German Bier Garden.....nice place!

Ended  our wonderful evening in Portsmouth with a walk to the Fresnel Lens.


 

As  you travel up the Pungo River, just past Belhaven, NC sits a quiet little marina, Dowry Creek.........it's run by a lovely woman, Mary and her friendly staff..........they help us tie up and said........happy hour in the boaters lounge at 5:30. we sit around and tell tails.........
After a wonderful dip in the pool and refreshing showers, we head up to the lounge.   everyone gathers and talks about their travels.  John and Missey just bought a 36 Hunter that they sailed down from VA. they bought  champagne for everyone to toast their new home in dowry creek! They are naming it "RRrrr happy home"  It's a fixer upper....so..........it'll be a challenge for sure!

History and bottle tree buffs believe the use of bottle trees may have come out of Africa or even ancient Arabia (think, genie in a bottle). People
would place the bottle trees outside the entrance of their homes to trap evil spirits. The most common thought is the spirits could not resist the
lure of the bottles as the sun shone through them.
The spirits would enter the bottles and become trapped. Blue bottles were believed to be the most powerful in trapping the spirits. And if you've ever heard the eerie howl of wind blowing over an open bottle, you might understand why someone would think such a tree trapped spirits.
Here's the bottle tree just oustside the pool at Dowry Creek Marina.

A peaceful, serene sunrise over Dowry Creek........we say good by and head up the Pungo river to the Alligator river-Pungo River Canal.

We had an extra passenger for awhile!!  Hang on Harvey!!!

We say goodbye to the canal........we a really nice ride through here.  Next stop Little Alligator River.  We are going to drop anchor tonight.  then head off to COINJOCK.  from there, it is 50 miles to Portsmouth and the end of the intercoastal.

Happy 4th of July

 Nice day at the pool at River Dunes.  "CHANGER"  arrived this afternoon. We took a quick dip and caught up on water way news since we saw them last in Beaufort, SC 

Shrimp boats!!

Going from Morehead City to River Dunes........
We always see interesting things!