Those living near or working on the water are keeping an especially close eye on Sandy's march up the Atlantic Coast. NY1's Natasha Ghoneim filed the following report.

The crew aboard the Marilyn Jean 4 expected a Friday fishing excursion for striped bass to be one of their last before Sandy smashes into the city.

Captain Michael Ardolino's safety checks aboard the Brooklyn 6, though, were for naught. It remained docked in Sheepshead Bay. Their crew was forced to call it a night because the captain says customers are already scared off, despite the fact that Sandy is days away.

"It is absolutely gorgeous right now," Ardolino said. "Tonight would have been another gorgeous night out there, but there's nobody here to take fishing."

The fishing boats will remain anchored from Sunday to at least next Thursday due to safety concerns.

"If you look at the marine forecast a couple of days from now, the seas are 17 to 21 feet and the winds are 30 to 40 miles per hour," said fisherman Ira Drogin. "I'm not going and they're not going."

If Tropical Storm Irene taught the captains and crews one thing, it's that business could be washed out for several weeks.

"It took a while for the ocean to calm down, and I would say it probably hurt us for two weeks before we were able to get back into the groove of things," said Captain Michael Miller of the Brooklyn 6.

When Sandy arrives, the men on board the fishing boats will be waiting and ready for her. They'll ride out her wrath on board, ensuring the lines to the dock don't break. And if the storm gets too abusive, they'll take the boats to calmer water.

A few of the captains have the ultimate evacuation plan. Come Sunday, they'll brave the stormy Atlantic for a cruise to Bermuda.

The boat captains NY1 spoke with say they've never experienced a storm so severe that it required them to move the boats out of Sheepshead Bay and into safer waters. But if this ends up being the "whopper" of a storm that meteorologists predict, that could very well happen.