Coinjock has become a traditional stopover. It’s a short day cruise from Portsmouth, it requires passage through a lock and several draw bridges, it’s the only stopoff before Albemarle Sound, plus the restaurant there has great prime rib! Sister Lisa has a beach home near Nags Head, and if they are at the beach, it’s a great opportunity to get together as wae head south. We had been in touch with Lisa and family before we left Stansbury, and made plans to meet up at Coinjock since our weather didn’t impede our travel, and their plans were to be at the beach for the weekend, so our plans worked out. We enjoyed a delightful visit with family and friends, and a great dinner of prime rib and seafood.
Overnight was a bit chilly, we planned to leave early to make the run across Albemarle Sound and make the transit through the Alligator-Pungo Canal. We turned on the heat as we had our morning beverage, and as we were relaxing, we heard a loud POP! We looked at each other and couldn’t figure what the heck would make such a loud noise. A quick walk around didn’t reveal anything, so we sort of shrugged and kept on with our prep. As I went up to the pilothouse, I soon discovered what the noise was! The center windshield was a spider web of crazed glasss! WOW! Didn’t expect that! Well, the glass was intact, so we finished our departure prep and got underway. We still had two clear screens to see through! Just another adventure! A few posts to the trawler forum regarding the windshield dilemma while underway gave us some ideas on a solution.
We continued to Pungo River at the end of the Alligator-Pungo Canal and dropped the hook for the night, the windshield showed no sign of any change. We dropped the dink and headed the mile or so up river to a small boat ramp and headed ashore for a walk. The area we walked is a peninsula and rural, we discovered cotton fields, big ones! We also met Sparky, a sort of mangy pit bull who decided to tag along on our walk. Unfortunately, Molly was a bit intimidated with his boisterousness, and they just didn’t hit it off. But we made it back to the dinghy with no incident and Sparky didn’t get in with us but said goodbye as we shoved off!
