By that time most hurricane holes will be taken. My theory if I'm cruising is to find a marina a couple of days out and stay there. If you wait too long most of the protected marinas won't have slips and you're stuck. So find a place early and absorb the cost.
Yes, but if you run for cover with every potential tropical storm then they will completely dominate your life. The majority don't hit land and of those that do, the vast majority won't hit where you are. I would not wait until within 48 hours to take steps, but I would certainly wait longer than people were talking about 99. My time is 3 to 4 days and at the very least until it's actually a hurricane. Otherwise my boat is always prepared for a storm the size of 99, unless I'm out on it and then I'm very aware and prepared to move.
The various paths of 99 now show landfall anywhere from Tampa to New Orleans with one straggler for Galveston area. However, none of those show it developing into even a tropical storm. It's bringing heavy rain. So, if I lived in an area that would be impacted by heavy rain, I'd stay on alert, but that's a land concern, not a boat one.
Meanwhile 91 has turned into Tropical Depression 8 and it is likely to hit the NC coast as a Tropical Storm on Tuesday so if I was in that area I would be reacting as I would to a Tropical Storm, whatever that is to an individual.
Does mean 99 can no longer turn into Hermine as H/8 is now taken.
It's all a very personal decision of when and how to react. I just try to make my reaction consistent with what I know at the time and there's been nothing in the history of 99 that would have sent me into hurricane mode. If I lived in Louisiana right now, I would be very concerned of it or anything with the potential of additional rain. I don't fault anyone who is concerned and takes what I would consider premature action.
I guess part of my thought is centered around those who say they can't keep a boat in Florida because of hurricanes or wonder how anyone boats or lives in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Well, we do very happily but we do so by only reacting to hurricanes headed our way and since 2005, no hurricane has made landfall anywhere in the state of Florida. We do remain aware of every tropical development but we don't go into hurricane mode on them.
One other thing is that we always assume storms may come, whether tropical or otherwise and keep our boats prepared for storms.