Bar Harbor - With the holiday weekend approaching, folks in Bar Harbor have their eye on Hurricane Earl. Charlie Phippen is the Harbor Master in Bar Harbor and says folks are scurrying to get their boats out of Frencman's Bay and over to Northeast Harbor where they'll be safe. "I started my 11th year in April and I would say this is the storm that I've taken the most seriously based on the projections of it," says Phippen.

A cruise ship that was scheduled to stop here on Friday has already cancelled and two more scheduled for Sunday are still waiting to see if the weather will allow them to drop anchor here. Despite that potential loss of business, folks here are remaining optimistic. "If they're not here, we can't serve them," says Matthew Schneider, General Manager of the Quarterdeck. "Hopefully they'll reschedule them to come back and if not, we'll make it up on the next cruise ship."

The whale watches and nature cruises are already preparing for some rough waters. Camille Legere is the front desk manager at Bar Harbor Whale Watches. "As of today we're cancelling a nature cruise," she says. "I guess there's some stuff coming off shore already and from tomorrow on we'll know what's up. We could be pulling the plug on a lot of trips."

But most of the businesses around here are hopeful Earl won't wash out the entire holiday weekend. Craig Robbins has managed the Bar Harbor Campgrounds long enough to have seen his share of hurricanes come through here. He doesn't think the impact will be all that severe. "I imagine some of the tenters, if they're in the area, they'll go in the motel for the night," he says, "from what they're saying the weather is going to clear up on Saturday and they'll come out of the woodworks and they'll be tenting again."

Matthew Schneider agrees. He says Earl may not be inviting to some folks but the people already here for the weekend are here to stay. "I don't see it impacting business too much because, as we know, Bar Harbor is a destination kind of resort where when people get here, I don't want to say they're stuck here, but they choose to stay."

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