Official access to Port Allen Harbor has been restored, an important Na Pali Coast tour departure point. Meanwhile, Port Allen Small Boat Harbor remains closed after Hurricane Lowell, with no reopening date.
Capt Andy’s, Holo Holo Charters, Blue Dolphin Charters, and Kauai Sea Tours operate from the main harbor, not the small boat harbor. According to Jaye Moreau, Sales and Marketing Manager for Capt. Andys, “We’re still assessing conditions and will share a reopening date once we’re confident our tours can resume safely.”
We went to the Small Boat Harbor over the weekend to see the damage firsthand. A sailboat sat partially submerged with its mast still standing above the harbor. Nearby, the bright blue hull of another boat floated upside down. Gangways were twisted and collapsed, sections of dock had broken loose, and along one side of the harbor the pavement had been undermined so seriously that parts of the concrete walkway were hanging over exposed rocks and water.
The damage comes at an especially difficult time for Kauai’s boat tour industry. Port Allen isn’t the only west-side harbor that had been closed after Hurricane Lowell. Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor in Kekaha, another major departure point for Na Pali trips, is still closed, leaving operators and visitors with far fewer options as the limited North Shore boating season winds down.
What we found at Port Allen Small Boat Harbor on Saturday.
The scale of the damage was easier to understand standing there than in the first reports after Lowell. Some boats remained tied at docks that appeared intact, while elsewhere there were empty slips, displaced dock sections, and then the partially submerged vessels sitting in the water.
The shoreline infrastructure took an equally visible hit. One long stretch of pavement beside the harbor had been eaten away underneath, exposing the rock below it, while gangways farther down were folded and leaning at odd angles. It didn’t look like one isolated failure that could simply be repaired and put back into service.
State officials had already reported destroyed piers, multiple sunken vessels, and roadway damage at Port Allen after Lowell. The Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation still lists the Port Allen Small Boat Harbor as closed until further notice while it evaluates its condition and determines what happens next. There is no reopening date.
Port Allen access is restored, but tours haven’t resumed.
Port Allen is where many of Kauai’s best-known catamaran, snorkeling, sunset, and fishing trips begin. We recently wrote about how every way to see Kauai’s Na Pali Coast compares, including our own catamaran trip from Port Allen.
Capt Andy’s, Holoholo Charters, Blue Dolphin Charters and Kauai Sea Tours operate from the main Port Allen Harbor, not the damaged Small Boat Harbor we photographed. Official access to the main harbor has been restored, but that doesn’t mean tours will resume immediately. Capt Andy’s told us Tuesday that it is still assessing conditions and will announce a reopening date when it is confident tours can operate safely.
Holoholo Charters extended its cancellations again Wednesday, with all tours now canceled through September 26. The company says it is still assessing when operations can resume and that cancellations could extend beyond that date.
Kikiaola remains a separate problem. Capt Andy’s raft tours depart from that small harbor west of Waimea, as do other Na Pali operators, and DLNR still lists it closed until further notice because of heavy-surf damage. We previously reported on how heavily commercial boat tours use Kikiaola, despite its small size.
Hanalei seasonal tours can’t replace Kauai west-side operations.
Hanalei departures start much closer to Na Pali than trips from the west and south sides, but they are seasonal and aren’t a year-round replacement for the disrupted operations on the South Shore.
Timing is the problem. North Shore boat operations are seasonal because winter surf makes Hanalei unavailable, and some operators end their regular season in late September.
That creates a very different picture from what visitors would ordinarily see at this time of year. Main-harbor access at Port Allen has returned, but tours haven’t yet followed; Kikiaola remains closed, and the North Shore is heading into the part of the year when ocean conditions increasingly determine whether boats can go at all.
For now, anyone with a Kauai Na Pali boat trip booked from Port Allen or Kikiaola should check directly with the operator. Main-harbor access at Port Allen has returned, but tour companies still make their own safety and operational decisions, while Kikiaola remains closed until further notice.
Photo and Video Credits: © Beat of Hawaii.
Content updated on September 16 with new information on Port Allen and to correct the prior article that said tour operators used the Port Allen Small Boat Harbor.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
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What’s the status of tour boats large catamarans? Were they damaged? You didn’t mention that?
Catamaran companies are coming back online. Capt Andy’s is resuming catamaran tours to Na Pali coast on 9/21
This is most helpful. However, our reservations are for the 3 weeks going to 4 islands in early April. Realizing it takes time to rebuild etc. would it be wiser for us to postpone our trip for a year or would we be running a risk once there. we have car rentals, tours, etc.,etc.,
@Roberta, Kauai has made huge strides in recovery just in the past week. The entire island will back to normal operations well before Spring.
We’ve taken HoloHolo and Capt. Andy’s sightseeing boat tours many times in years past, but now that we are older we basically stay on the shoreline. However, my concern is that these businesses are able to get up and running as soon as possible because of the significant economic impact it has for the communities and people who live full-time on Kauai, and depend upon this income for their livelihood. It seems to me for a first world location, that government inefficiency and incompetent bureaucracy sure does slow walk Hawaiian recovery when it comes to hurricanes and heavy rains from seasonal Pacific storms. Talk is very cheap from politicians, but action and timely response is what the citizens of Kauai need right now!
Aloha to all.
Thank you for clarifying the two different port operations at Port Allen. I was confused because just yesterday the County of Kauai Press Release indicated it was not true that Port Allen was closed. Now I understand they were referencing the Commercial operations.
We’ve done the Na Pali trip twice from Port Allen and would do it again in a hearbeat. Sending good thoughts to all the crews and businesses trying to recover from this. And regarding Hanalei, those who haven’t spent that much time on Kauai may not realize how different the ocean becomes up there once summer ends and why it isn’t viable.
The economic impact of this has to go well beyond tourists missing a boat ride. Captains, crews, maintenance people, office staff and plenty of other people depend on these operations. Hope they can get back to work soon.
I wouldn’t want them rushing back. Looking at those photos, there is obviously a lot more involved in repairs than just getting the boats back in the water. The walkway is crazy.
We sailed from Port Allen with Capt Andy’s last year and it was honestly one of the top highlights of our Kauai trip. So sad to see the harbor looking like this.
Those pictures really show what happened and how serious it is. Hopefully they can get Port Allen functioning again soon, especially for all the people whose livelihoods depend on those boats sailing!
We have a Na Pali tour booked for later this month and had no idea there was this much damage. We’ll definitely be calling to check on this before we leave.