Port Allen Small Boat Harbor remains closed after Hurricane Lowell, with no reopening date for one of Kauai’s most important Na Pali Coast tour departure points. We went there over the weekend to see the damage firsthand, and what we found made clear why tour operations are still disrupted.
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’s closed. Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor in Kekaha, another major departure point for Na Pali trips, is also closed until further notice after Lowell, leaving operators and visitors with far fewer options as the limited North Shore boating season winds down.
What we found at Port Allen 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.
Two important Na Pali tour departure points are now closed.
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 are among the companies whose operations are based at Port Allen. As of Monday morning, Capt Andy’s has canceled all tours through Thursday, September 17 while it waits for harbor access to be restored. The company says it has not set a reopening date; however, reservations later in September and beyond remain in place for now.
Holoholo Charters has canceled tours through September 16 and says those cancellations could extend farther. For visitors already on Kauai or arriving soon, that makes checking directly with the operator especially important rather than assuming a booked trip will simply depart somewhere else.
Kikiaola would ordinarily provide another option. Capt Andy’s raft tours leave from there rather than Port Allen, and other Na Pali operators use the small harbor west of Waimea. We previously reported on how heavily commercial boat tours use Kikiaola, despite its small size.
DLNR says Kikiaola remains closed until further notice because of heavy-surf damage, with its condition still being evaluated. Kukuiula Small Boat Harbor on Kauai’s south shore is closed for the same reason.
Hanalei departures might resume Thursday, but the season is closing.
Hanalei departures also have an advantage because they start much closer to Na Pali than trips from the west and south sides.
The problem is timing and other North Shore issues. North Shore boat operations are seasonal because winter surf makes Hanalei increasingly unreliable, and some operators end their regular season around late September. As October approaches, Hanalei can’t replace the year-round capacity that Port Allen and Kikiaola normally provide.
That creates a very different picture from what visitors would ordinarily see at this time of year. The two west-side harbors that carry much of the Na Pali tour business are both closed, while the remaining North Shore option is heading into the part of the year when ocean conditions increasingly determine whether boats can go at all.
Port Allen’s two operations are easy to confuse.
Two different state operations run Port Allen. DLNR manages the Small Boat Harbor used by tour and recreational boats, while the adjacent commercial port falls under the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
The commercial port reopened after crews addressed its storm-damaged navigational buoys, and Kauai County said Saturday evening that Port Allen was open for operations except at night. That does not include the Small Boat Harbor we visited, which impacts tour boats. DOBOR still lists that facility as closed until further notice because of heavy-surf damage, as seen in our photo, with no reopening date.
Moving somewhere else isn’t necessarily simple.
The obvious question is whether affected companies can move their boats and customers to another harbor. Commercial tour operations are subject to state permits and Kauai harbor capacity, so an undamaged boat can’t necessarily relocate to another Kauai harbor and then start carrying passengers.
For now, anyone with a Na Pali boat trip booked whether from Port Allen, Kikiaola, or Hanalei, should contact the operator directly. The photographs we took Saturday show why predicting a Port Allen reopening is premature. Now a week after Lowell, boats remain partially submerged, and some harbor infrastructure is visibly torn apart.
Photo and Video Credits: © Beat of Hawaii.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
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.