Near-gale Winds Delay Haʻaheo Barge, Young Brothers Adjusts Schedules

Young Brothers is delaying the cargo barge Haʻaheo after what the company called "severe ocean conditions caused by near-gale force winds" in a letter to customers, officials said. Haʻaheo had been scheduled to arrive at the Port of Kawaihae by Tuesday morning; the delay prompted Port of Kawaihae to extend gate hours until 5 p.m. to ease customer pickups.

Operational changes at Kawaihae include limiting immediate availability to straightload containers that can be collected without extra handling. Young Brothers is making dry and refrigerated straightload containers available upon notification, and vehicles and roll-on/roll-off cargo are also available on request. Dry palletized and mixed cargo are slated for pickup Wednesday at 7:30 a.m., with refrigerated palletized and loose cargo available beginning Wednesday at 8 a.m., port notices show.

The company said it is "tweaking schedules as needed into next week for safety," signaling further adjustments across interisland sailings as forecasts evolve. Young Brothers directed customers to the company website for the latest sailing schedules and cargo availability, and operations staff at the port implemented the gate extension and pickup sequencing to reduce congestion while the delayed barge remains off schedule.

Hawaiʻi Island is singled out as the most impacted island by the worsening interisland conditions, and the Haʻaheo delay is part of broader safety-driven changes to movements between islands. Port staff are prioritizing cargo that can be loaded or offloaded with minimal extra handling to maintain throughput even as sailings shift.

Young Brothers and older generations of its crew have decades of experience handling hazardous Pacific conditions, a record the company points to as background for its safety-first posture. Historical company records note that George Panui Jr. spent long hours manning piers during the high and low tides of Hawaiʻi’s 1960 tsunami and later captained the Mikiala on a tow with the barge Malana behind on an 1,800-foot hawser, during which "the captain and crew battled 40- to 60-foot swells, with the barge disappearing from view in the troughs of waves." Kāpena Raymond Alapa‘i, who joined Young Brothers in 1962 and retired in 2005 after 43 years of service, is described in those records as embodying calm and seamanship: "Whether the wind was blowing 40 knots, or dead calm seas, Alapa‘i always kept his cool." Glenn Hong, President of Young Brothers, recalled one of Alapa‘i’s tows to Maui in 1990 on the Manuokekai where he delivered tandem barges without a tug assist in Kona winds.

For now, the immediate customer impacts are concrete: gate hours extended to 5 p.m., straightload containers prioritized, and palletized pickup windows set for Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. Young Brothers says it will continue adjusting sailings into next week for safety as conditions warrant.