Orient Bay to Huntington

Monday 17 September: Leaving Orient Bay and the North Fork, arriving Huntington.
Long day ahead of us, we have 70nm to go. So early alarm sees us up-anchoring before 7am and we have breakfast while on the way. Heavy dew on the decks again. But it soon burns off, as the warm sun rises. Beautiful day again. We are certainly going to miss days like this: flat calm sea, warm sun, blue sky, beautiful shoreline. We feel a bit sad thinking we are soon leaving Long Island and this great cruising ground. But autumn is definitely on the way.
Huntington is where we will leave Cloudy Bay for few days while we go visit New York City. And when we return from New York City, we leave for Chesapeake Bay, which is the last area we visit in USA this season.
Hardly any wind. We motor, and we need to make a tank of water anyway. Glen doesn’t want to make water again until we are out into the Atlantic in about 10 days. We are hugging the coast to keep away from the ebb tide rushing against us until midday. And as the tide turns, clouds start gathering above us, the weather front which brings the leftovers of Florence.
We made 640 liters of water in 4 hours. The largest quantity of water we made in one run. Both tanks full. Hehe, this is what we do either when we can’t run the watermaker for a while (marina bound) or we are getting ready for visitors (whom never seem to understand water onboard is precious and not to be wasted!).
No sign of wind yet and we try to keep busy otherwise: online orders, laptop backup, and when we have enough in front of the laptop, the serious jobs! Glen brings out the cleaning kit, and gives the cockpit a thorough wash and gentle scrub using seawater. Then the aft deck, then the foredeck. He was keen to do that for a long time, especially that the decks seemed to collect more and more black on them since we left Caribbean. Now it is all spotlessly clean… and adequately salty! Perfect timing for the rain tomorrow, to rinse all the salt off. Fingers crossed it will actually rain now!
7 hours into our journey and the wind finally comes in. Sails out, and we have a beautiful gentle sail for a couple of hours. Right on time for a peaceful quiet lunch.
When we round Eatons Neck, engine on and we motor towards the narrow channel and into the Huntington Harbor. What a beautiful place. We gaze at the properties on the water’s edge as we motor slowly in.
We pick up the mooring buoy right as it starts to rain. Good timing. This buoy was recommended to us by one of the OCC (Ocean Cruising Club) port officers. Eric, the port officer for Long Island, kindly arranged this mooring, at a good price in a very safe place. We will be at peace in NYC while Cloudy Bay takes a rest here.