HARPSWELL, Maine — It was perfectly peaceful and picturesque in Harpswell on Monday, as it often is.
But the town with the most coastline in Maine is a bit on edge. Workers hauled boats out of the water and into storage at Dolphin Marina Monday afternoon because Hurricane Lee remains a threat to Maine's coast.
Its precise trajectory is still unclear, but it has a chance to bring devastating winds and surge by week's end.
Harpswell Harbormaster Paul Plummer sat in his office overlooking a quiet cove and clicked through weather maps of the area. He remembered well what happened the previous December, when a holiday storm swelled Casco Bay to dangerous heights, providing the fourth-highest tide in nearby Portland's history.
"It's been so long since something like this has come up here," he said of Lee. "If it's anything to [the December storm's] extent, yeah, it's very concerning that that kind of punch could hit."
"We had some seawalls break," Plummer continued. "We had some channel markers, our day beacons, that got folded over; strong, thick steel completely bent over."
Tom Butler remembered too. December's storm battered the fish pier and shoreline in front of his home and Erica's seafood, the takeout restaurant his family operates.
"A lot of wind and a lot of sea is what's on my mind," Butler said grimly. He had a plan in place for the weekend.
"We'll probably take the ramp that's on the end of the dock and put it up on the wharf," he said. "If the winds are gonna be real bad, we'll take the boats and we'll put them up in what we call the mill pond. It's kind of a safe harbor for us."
Some ships can't hide. As the storm approaches, Portland expected five cruise ships to dock this week that carry at least 1,000 passengers each. Bar Harbor expected seven within that passenger range. The town's harbormaster, Chris Wharff, told NEWS CENTER Maine on Monday his people were preparing and awaiting word from the cruise lines.
"We are getting ready for the potential storm impacts, pulling floats out of the water and moving boats around," Wharff wrote in an email. "I would suspect that with the anticipated weather, cruise ships will be canceling over the weekend but we have not had any confirmed cancellations as of yet."
For boaters with options, Plummer said it might be best to get your summer boat out early rather than late.
"Folks who aren't sure if they're gonna wait it out or not, I think by Wednesday you're pushing your luck, if it looks like it's gonna start coming this direction," he said.
Plummer said he also sent a memo to town leadership, requesting permission for fishermen to store gear on public land if they need to get it out of the water.