The phones were lighting up yesterday at yacht clubs, marinas and harbormasters' offices as nervous North Shore boaters watched Hurricane Earl bear down on the East Coast.
"It's definitely got our attention," said Larry Robertie, commodore of the Palmer Cove Yacht Club in Salem. "We're hauling boats today."
They were paying close attention in Marblehead, which has more than 2,000 boats on moorings and slips inside the harbor and along the shore line.
"We've been answering phones all morning," Marblehead Harbormaster Charlie Dalferro said. "People are asking us what they should do. ... There hasn't been an exodus of boats, but some people have been taking them out."
Most boaters seemed to be waiting until today to get a better read on the storm, which could veer out to sea by the weekend, producing only moderate winds and rain.
"Some people are coming in off moorings," said Frank Kinzie, owner of Beverly Port Marina, which has its 230 boats all on docks or inside its big, red building near the base of Veterans Memorial Bridge. "I must say it's fewer that I expected."
It's possible boaters have been enjoying the great summer weather, Kinzie said, and plan to ride out the storm over the Labor Day weekend, figuring it won't be that bad.
"I think people are saying, 'There's no way I'm going to take my boat out for the season' (because) the weather's been so good," he said.
Kinzie advised those people to keep a close eye on Earl.
"They need to look at the weather forecasts," he said yesterday afternoon. "It's not looking good at all."
They had a different view yesterday at the Marblehead Trading Company, a large town boatyard where an employee said the storm "seems to be going out."
But she said they have a list of boats to haul in case the forecast changes.
Harbormasters said they are leaving it up to boat owners to decide what to do, and just hope they follow the storm closely.
"The advice we're giving them is to keep a close eye on the storm and, if they are going to do something, to do it sooner rather than later," Beverly Harbormaster Dan McPherson said. "Don't wait till the last moment. ... That's the last thing we want — people going out to their boats during the storm, which becomes a life-threatening thing."
At Palmer Cove in Salem, the club ordered members to move boats tied up on a so-called "transient" dock that is more exposed to the weather.
A few members, on their own, have been heading to more protected waters.
"We've got some guys just voluntarily going up the Danvers River," Robertie said. "That's usually a pretty safe hurricane hole."
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