BOSTON --Hurricane Earl weakened to a tropical storm late Friday night as it made its way past New England, bringing wind and rain, but no major damage, to Cape Cod and the islands.

With minimal damage, Gov. Deval Patrick lifted the state of emergency just before 8 a.m. Saturday.

"We have very good news this morning. Hurricane Earl continued to track east and out to sea as it approached us last night, and the Cape and islands were spared a direct hit. We had very minimal impacts, including some 1,800 power outages, most of which have already been restored," Patrick said in a statement.

"At this point, we are hopeful that the damages are going to be minimal," said Scott McLeod of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

Click To Comment | Images: Aerial Tour Of Cape, Islands After Earl | Images: Earl Brushes Cape, Islands | Images: Cape, Islands Prep For Earl | Minimal Damage Reported On Vineyard | Some Power Outages Reported On Cape | Earl Brushes Past Chatham

Downed trees were reported in several communities, including Orleans and Chatham, Storm Team 5's JC Monahan said. The highest wind gust of 48 mph was recorded in Nantucket.

As of 7 a.m., NStar reported less than 300 customers were without power, mostly in Dennis and Brewster. At about 3 a.m., there were 1,600 customers in the dark.

At the height of the storm, the only one found wandering the streets of Martha's Vineyard was a lonely skunk. Down the street at the Pequot Hotel, tourist Ann Marie said she almost canceled her trip with her boyfriend. Good thing she didn't -- he had big plans.

"I planned to ask Anne Marie to marry me, and I had an engagement ring," he said.

"I opened the box and I saw a velvet box, and I saw a ring and I said, 'Oh my god!' And I almost canceled because my family said, 'You are crazy. You are crazy. They are evacuating the island. You are going to die,'" she said.

Ahead of the storm, homeowners on Nantucket took no chances. Residents in the Madaket area, which is considered a high-risk flood area, put sandbags around their property to protect it from the sea.

Gene Ratner's home survived high tide. Powerful waves pounded the house for hours. Twenty feet of sandbags under the back side of the structure withstood the early effects of Earl.

Dan and Julie Bathon rode out the downgraded storm from their house close to an eroding dune.

"If God wants that dune, he'll take it. There's nothing we can do about it," Dan Bathon said.

Some Cape store owners boarded up windows with plywood, but many remained open, busy with Labor Day weekend tourists.

"We found out that the storm was not going to be a Category 2 or 3, so here we are," one tourist said.

"It doesn't seem like it is going to be anywhere near what they expected it to be," another tourist said. "In my opinion, it's turned into a big dud. It's too bad."

Several surfers ignored warnings, closed beaches and the dangers of the sea, taking to 8- to 12-foot waves.

"Even though the wind and the rain may have passed, we are still going to be dealing with a lot of high surf and dangerous rip currents this weekend. We are going to want to make sure folks who are visiting the Cape or recreating along the coastline, that they are doing it safely," McLeod said.

The Steamship Authority resumed ferry service Saturday on the Woods Hole-Martha’s Vineyard route at 6 a.m. Passenger/vehicle ferries and the high-speed passenger ferry on the Hyannis-Nantucket route resumed service at 7:30 a.m.

Amtrak resumed normal operations early Saturday between Boston and New York.