Hurricane Earl is still days away, and may have minimal impact on Connecticut, but some along the shoreline are not taking any chances.
Tuesday, several people brought their boats on to dry land, including Paul Anthony who was trying to get in one last fishing trip before the end of the summer.
"Oh yeah, I'm going to take my boat home and I'm not gonna leave it down here," said Anthony. "You never know what's going to happen."
The exact track of Hurricane Earl is still unclear, but with coastal Connecticut in the cross hairs, boaters aren't taking any chances.
"I'll bring the boat down here and bring it into the state launch over here," said boater Challen Young.
Young plans to bring his 24 foot boat on to dry land. He says the risk of leaving it in the water is too great. He remembers when Hurricane Gloria pummeled the coast 25 years ago.
"It was a low tide event and we saw a 15 foot surge with waves up the end of the river up here," said Young.
Mago Point Marina in Waterford has received several calls asking for boats to be pulled from the water. Captain John Wadsworth says they are ready.
"It's always better to plan ahead," said Wadsworth. "We start getting extra lines ready, watching the weather everyday."
Mystic Seaport has to worry about its fleet of historic vessels as well.
"We start out five days with an alert mode and then we get to 48 hours and then 36 hours and that's when the bulk of the work will start to happen," said Michael O’Farrell, the Director of Public Relations at Mystic Seaport.
If the storm track heads in their direction, the folks have to move the historic tall ships away from the docks. Many of the smaller boats will be removed from the water completely.
"We have more than 500 vessels to take care of and close to two million objects to take care of so the safety of staff, objects and vessels is our first priority," said O’Farrell.
If the storm tracks closer to Connecticut, crews will have to move artifacts from 40 different locations across the Seaport grounds and make sure that they're in a safe spot.
"They all have priceless artifacts inside so we need to make judgments on how severe this will be and what things we'll need to take out," said O’Farrell.
The threat of a hurricane could mean an economic loss for the tourist spot as well. Labor Day is traditionally one of Mystic Seaport's busiest weekends of year, and severe weather could keep people away.
"Closing at any time is not good for us. It's not good for anybody," said O’Farrell.
