Days before the official end of the hurricane season, Hurricane Olga, a storm system with top winds of around 70 mph which has been churning up nearby seas since Saturday is hovering in nearby waters.

But weather forecasters, while saying the hurricane is a potential threat to Bermuda, are having some difficulty saying for sure whether the Island will feel Olga's full impact.

A spokesman for the Bermuda Weather Service said last night that forecasters were "very unsure" about the direction of the system.

"All the computer models have it going in different directions," he told The Royal Gazette. "But it looks like there is no threat over the next day or two."

Meanwhile five German nationals had to be rescued from their 45-foot sailboat by a passing ship Saturday night just 700 miles east of the island.

According to Associated Press the sailboat was not damaged but sea conditions were too dangerous for the five to stay on board.

The sailboat was heading to the Azores - directly east of Bermuda - from the French Caribbean island of Martinique.

Olga was upgraded from a tropical storm to hurricane status yesterday afternoon. The slow moving storm with 65 knot winds gusting up to 80 knots, was some 450 miles east of Bermuda and heading northwards at six mph.

It is expected to be 345 nautical miles to the east of Bermuda by 2 p.m. Thursday.